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THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE 
OF ISRAEL 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
NEW YORK + BOSTON + CHICAGO - DALLAS 
ATLANTA + SAN FRANCISCO 


MACMILLAN & CO., Limrrep 


LONDON + BOMBAY - CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 


THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lip. 
TORONTO 


THE 
AUTHENTIC LITERATURE 
OF ISRAEL 


FREED FROM THE DISARRANGEMENTS, EXPANSIONS AND 
COMMENTS OF EARLY NATIVE EDITORS 


EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION 


BY 
ELIZABETH CZARNOMSKA, A.M. 


PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 
IN SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE, VIRGINIA 


FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN SMITH COLLEGE, MASS. 
LATER, OF HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO; 
HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE EGYPT EXPLORATION SOCIETY 


PART ONE 
FROM THE EXODUS TO THE EXILE 


jQem ork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1924 


All rights reserved 








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By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1924. 
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TO THE MEMORY 
OF THE GUIDES OF MY YOUTH 
AND MY LIFE-LONG INSPIRATION 


GEORGE WASHINGTON COAKLEY, LL.p. 
MATHEMATICIAN, PHYSICIST AND ASTRONOMER 
AND 
ELIZA JULIANA COAKLEY 
(SISTER ELIZA) 


PIONEER IN MANY GOOD WORKS 
IN THE 
DIOCESE OF LONG ISLAND 





PREFACE 


The rapid advance of Science in the last century and the discovery 
of the high civilization of the Ancient Empires of the Near East, before 
only known through the Hebrew Scriptures and the discredited accounts 
of Herodotus, occasioned revision of these works. That of the Greek 
historian was thorough and largely restored faith in his accuracy; but 
the eminent theologians selected to put forth the “Revised Editions” 
concerned themselves only with the amending of the text and the substi- 
tution of modern terms for the obsolete words and phrasing of the 
Authorized Version. Reverence for the traditional view of the Inspira- 
tion of the Hebrew writings must have prevented the majority of the 
revisers from accepting the views of those collaborators who are now 
recognised as authorities in the study of the Bible. Hence all sorts of 
blemishes arising from the uncritical editing of the earliest native 
revisers still cling to the current editions like barnacles to a ship, of 
no worth in themselves and impeding its usefulness. 

This is by no means the first attempt to acquaint the public with 
the results of applying scientific methods to the study of the Sacred 
Scriptures. Thirty-two years ago the late Dr. Samuel R. Driver, Canon 
of Christ Church, Oxford, England, gave the English-speaking world a 
masterly “Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament”; wherein, 
by means of schematic analyses of the Hexateuch and copious lists of 
words and phrases peculiar to each author, editor or group of col- 
laborators in the whole Canon, accompanying them by his own felicitous 
criticisms, he supplied everyone interested, and who had time to use it, 
with a sufficient apparatus for estimating not only the work so far 
accomplished, but its incomparable value. American scholars were not 
slow to perceive the advantages of Dr. Driver’s method and to make it 
more practical. Dr. Benjamin W. Bacon, now of Yale University, pub- 
lished in 1894 “The Triple Tradition of the Exodus”, in which he 
distinguished typographically from each other and from the interpola- 
tions of post-exilic editors the two accounts of the Flight from Egypt 
contained in the books of Exodus and Numbers. Dr. Paul Haupt, of 
the Johns Hopkins University, had already planned a remarkable edition 
in which the books of the Old Testament were to be “newly translated 
and annotated by eminent scholars of Europe and America, and printed 
in colors exhibiting the composite structure of each book”, thereby 
enabling the reader to grasp in their integrity the argument and style 
of the original author. The first volumes of this “Polychrome edition” 
appeared in 1898, and took the literary world by storm. No such royal 
road to learning had enticed the young student or delighted the Bible- 
teacher before. Unfortunately, the enterprise was soon abandoned, 
owing, it was said, to the heavy cost of production; and this unique 
aid to the study of the Sacred Scriptures as literature remains incom- 
plete. However, in 1904 appeared the first volume of the “Student’s 
Bible” by Dr. Charles F. Kent, Professor of Biblical Literature in Yale 


Vil 


Vill THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


University, which sets side by side, in proper sequence and with their 
approximate dates, the several contributions to the text of each book 
in the Old Testament. Dr. Kent has also assembled the opinions of the 
highest authorities on still disputed points; and, with his able intro- 
ductions to the several volumes, together with excellent charts and 
maps, he has almost obviated the necessity for any other book of 
reference for the lay student. 

But these volumes and others of their sort are at once too cumbrous 
and too costly for the ordinary reader,—for the busy man of affairs who 
consecrates some of his precious leisure to a Sunday Bible-class, for the 
mother who asks how she shall answer her children’s questions, or for 
the instructor who would have his pupils gain their impression 
of these great writers from their own words and not from hearsay. 
The “Revised Editions” do indeed distinguish between poetry and prose 
by inset lines and capitals in the Historical Books, but not in the books 
of the Prophets, whose teachings are mostly embodied in noble poems. 
The “Temple Edition” (Oxford, 1902) of the Authorized Version, and 
the “Modern Reader’s Bible” (Moulton, R. G. 1904), have remedied this 
oversight, but present little more of the now established results of 
critical analysis than did the “Paragraph Bible” (Nourse, James, 1834), 
published before such analysis was begun. Perhaps the time was not 
then ripe for a bolder advance. New discoveries in Bible-lands, new 
results from younger scholars might any day upset seemingly well- 
grounded conclusions. But for twenty years past, every product of 
continuous research has only confirmed these conclusions. The preacher, 
the lecturer, even the daily press frequently refer to and build upon 
them as received truths. Moreover, the political problems in the Near 
East and new inquiries into the basis and development of our religion 
demand that the original documents of the Hebrew writers, of the keen- 
sighted politicians and inspired leaders of thought known to us as the 
Hebrew Prophets, should be in the hands of every thoughtful student - 
of affairs. 

For these reasons the present simple edition, unencumbered with 
notes, is offered. The references at the head of each separate division 
are always to the Authorized Version (A.V.). A short list of works of 
reference easily obtainable at most public libraries, and some points 
in the development of criticism which the editor has found useful in 
class-work are put at the end of the volume. The few words necessary 
to supply connecting links between passages ruthlessly separated by 
the native compilers are put in brackets. Otherwise, no foreign matter 
has been introduced into the text, and that omitted in Part I. will be 
found in its proper chronological order in Part II., which will present 
the Exilic and Post-exilic writings. 

I find no words to express adequately my gratitude to my inspiring 
teachers, Dr. Irving F. Wood, of Smith College; Dr. Richard Gottheil, 
of Columbia University, and Dr. Charles P. Fagnani, of the Union The- 
ological Seminary, New York, for their kind encouragement and valuable 
criticism; also, without their casual agreement or suggestion in and 
out of class, the work would never have been attempted. They can 
never know how often memory has recalled their very voices as I have 
come acress a passage on which they gave the final word which I have 
thankfully adopted; but whatever mistakes I have made cannot be laid at 
their door; they are all my own. 

To other friends most dear, among them many of my former pupils, 
I am indebted for their enthusiastic encouragement and their insistence 
upon the immediate completion of the work, for which they themselves 


PREFACE ix 


have felt the need. To each and all of these I tender my heartfelt 
thanks. I will not chronicle their names; each will know his or her own 
share. But to Mr. Elmer Hunter Scott, of Omaha, Neb. and Washington, 
D. C., and to Prof. C. Alphonso Smith, of the Naval Academy, Annapolis, 
Md., I owe special thanks for their examination of my plan and _ intro- 
duction and their favorable verdict upon them. 

ELIZABETH CZARNOMSKA, 


Sweet Briar College, 1924. 





+4 


ERRATA 


Page xv, Booklet VI. line 2: for Jeremiahan, read Jeremianic 

Page xv, Poem of Nahum, title: for or, read on 

Page xxxv, Introd. line 36 to the right: for prophets, read proph- 
ecies 

Page 25, Proverbs, Ref. to A. V.: for xxi, 17—xxili; read xxil, 
17-xxill 

Page 86, line 38 should be a blank space; verse intruded from 1. 
54, below 

Page 119, line 14: for eahweh, read Yahweh 

Page 164, last line of note; for xvii, read xviii 

Page 270, X. strophe 3, line 4: for give up, read, give thee up 

Page 279, III. 4: for eaves, read leaves 

Page 288, I. strophe 4, line 4: for plate, read gate 

Page 312, Ref. to A. V. for Exordium: for ii, 1; iv, 28 read, iii, 
I-iv, 28 

Page 419, Append. A, II, b: for Aqila, read Aquila 


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CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION eer ea tes sbtate yeh nie” Waste lt 

Necessity for a revision and re-arrangement of the Old 
Testament. How the apparatus for revision was obtained. 
Failure of early attempts at revision. Geographical posi- 
tion of the nation, and foreign influence upon its liter- 
ature. Analysis of the so-called “Historical Books.” Their 
four major writers, J, E, D, P. Character, purpose and set- 
ing of J’s work. His place in Hebrew Literature. Character 
of E’s work. Combination of the works of J and E by JE. 
The Book of Deuteronomy, by D. When written and for 
what purpose; the result. The scope of the Book of 
Jeremiah. 

Special difficulties in the revision of the “Books of the 
Prophets.” The work of the Masoretes. The formal char- 
acteristics of Hebrew Poetry. Analysis of the book of 
“Proverbs.” Early folklore of the Israelites. Influence of 
Assyrian Literature. The Golden Age of Hebrew Liter- 
ature. The formation of the Book of Jeremiah. 


THE LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


DATE B.C. 


THE DECALOGUE, or THE TEN Worpbs given by MOSEs ¢. 1220 
FIRST COLLECTION oF PROverRBS (Prov. x-xv) .*. . c¢. 950 
SECOND COLLECTION or PROvERBS (Prov. xvi-xxii, 16) c. 900 

Appendix (Prov. xxii, 17 - xxiv, 24) c. 615 


THE HISTORY OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL 
oe UdAICeAULNOr. Ja 8s, as ae st i. oc 850 


CHAPTER I. TO THE DEATH OF JACOB 
SECTION 
I. The Creation of Man and the founding of nations 
Il. The origin of the Israelites 
Ill. Their early life in Canaan 
IV. How they came into Egypt 
xi 


PAGE 
XVil 


PAGE 


29 


xii THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


DATEB.C. PAGE 
CHAPTER II. THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT . . 57 
(c. 1220 B.c.) 
SECTION 
The call of Moses to deliver his brethren 
II. The journey to Sinai 
III. The Feast of the Covenant and the Giving of the 
Law 
IV. The last years of their wandering in the desert, 
and their first conquests 


CHAPTER III. THE ADVANCE INTO CANAAN . 76 
(c. 1180 B.c.) 


SECTION 
I, Joshua leads the tribes across the Jordan; con- 
quers Jericho and Ai 


II. Joshua’s conquests towards the North and assign- 
ment of the tribal possessions 


Ill. The various tribes win their allotments and estab- 
lish their tribal government 


IV. The last of the Warrior-Judges, and the first 
aggressions of the Philistines 


CHAPTER IV. THE KINGSHIP OF SAUL . . 100 
(c. 1050 B.c.) 


SECTION 
I. The Israelites demand a king. Samuel the Seer 

anoints Saul, son of Kish. Saul rescues Jabesh- 
Gilead from the Ammonites 

II. Saul forfeits the kingship over all Israel. David 
slays Goliath and routs the Philistines. Saul, 
maddened by jealousy, pursues him 

III. Saul is slain by the Philistines. David becomes 
King of Judah and conquers Benjamin 


CHAPTER V. THE REIGN OF DAVID THE WAR- 


RIOR 120 


(c. 1010 B.c.) 
SECTION 
I. David becomes King of the Twelve Tribes. Takes 

Jerusalem and brings the Ark there. Expands 
the Kingdom beyond the Jordan. His intrigue 
with Bathsheba 

II. Revolt of Absalom. David flees to Hebron. Absa- 
lom is slain by Joab, General of the Army 

Ill. David returns in triumph to Jerusalem. Regulates 
the internal affairs of the Kingdom. His last 
days 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER VI. THE REIGN OF SOLOMON. THE 
SUCCESSION OF REHOBOAM AND THE DIVI- 
SION OF THE KINGDOM . ea te 


SECTION 

I. The troubles attending Solomon’s succession. He 
dreams that he is endowed with wisdom. He 
contracts for the building of the Temple, and 
dedicates it. (980-973) 

II. Solomon’s building enterprises. His navy. His 
son Rehoboam refuses to lower the Taxes. The 
Northern Tribes secede and form the Kingdom 
of Israel, the Southern Tribes take the name 
Kingdom of Judah. (c. 937B.c.) 


CHAPTER VII. THE REIGNS OF REHOBOAM, 
ASA AND JEHOSHAPHAT IN JUDAH, AND OF 
OMRI AND AHAB IN ISRAEL a hiyier ees 


SECTION 
I. The apostasy of Rehoboam and his son Abijah. 
The long and righteous rule of Asa and his son 
Jehoshaphat. In Israel, Omri usurps the throne 
and builds Samaria. His son Ahab succeeds 
him. (913-819 B.c.) 


Il. Benhadad of Aram (Syria) wars against Israel. 
Jehoshaphat of Judah joins forces with Ahab. 
Ahab is killed. His son Ahaziah succeeds him. 
(885-854 B.C.) 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF THE PATRIARCHS AND 
HEROES OF ISRAEL 
By the Ephraimite Author, E. 
I. Or ABRAHAM AND His Son ISAAC 
II. Or Esau AND JAcoB, Twin Sons of ISAAC 
Ill. Or JosepH, and His CAREER in EGypT 
IV. OF Mosss, the Liberator of his PEOPLE 
V. Or JosHua, who Led Israel into CANAAN... 
VI. OF DEBORAH AND BARAK, who Conquered SISERA 


VII. Or GipEon, who Stopped the Raids of the Mipt- 
ANITES A Va ee ee ne ere 


VIII. Or ABIMELECH AND JOTHAM, Sons of GIDEON 
IX. Or JEPHTHAH, who Conquered the AMMONITES 


X. Or Evi THE Prigst, and the Childhood of 
SAMUEL PES NAAN aE tHe ee es ee 


DATE B.C. 


c. 750 


Xiil 


PAGE 


145 


158 


169 
172 
176 
184 
199 
203 


204 
206 
207 


209 


Xiv THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


DATE-B.C. 
XI. Or SAMUEL THE SEER, Last of the GREAT JUDGES 
XII. Or SauL THE BENJAMITE, KING OF BENJAMIN 
XIII. Or JONATHAN, Son of SAUL, and DAvID 
XIV. OF DAVID THE OUTLAW ae se Gee Doe 
XV. OF JEROBOAM, First Kina of the NORTHERN 
TRIBES $8 SAU te lake ele SORES | oki 
XVI. OF ELIJAH THE TISHBITE, Cheennicn of the 
Pure Religion of YAHWEH ‘ Se ei, 
XVII. Or ExvisHa, the WoNDER- WoRKER and KING- 
MAKER Al ONE IES te ton tee ay hs 
XVIII. Or JoASH, GRANDSON OF AHAB, King in Judah 
POEMS AND ADDRESSES OF THE PROPHET AMOS, 

ORVJUDAHS ois. oe ; #50. peneo 
POEMS AND APOTHEGMS OF THE PROPHET HOSEA, 

OPTS RA BS yeanece oe e Gu 145 
POEMS OF ISAIAH, COUNSELLOR OF KINGS . ... 743-701 
POEMS OF MICAH, THE MORASTHITE . .. . . .«. G 735 

SUPPLEMENT TO THE HISTORY OF THE 
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL 
Byoel Boas ors rt 0.8 698 


I. The death of ape ibe ‘King ¢ of les) ht the 
accession of Azariah (Uzziah) in Judah. The 
fall of the Northern Kingdom, conquered by 
Assyria, (722 B.C.) 


II. The reign of Hezekiah in Judah. Isaiah the 
Prophet his counsellor. Death of Hezekiah, 
(694 B.C.) 


SUPPLEMENT II. THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 


By the final editor, P. Foperye fc : . . 698-584 


The abominable reigns is Mertens and his son 
Amon. The righteous reign of JOSIAH; the 
Finding of the Book of the Law, and the Conse- 
quent Religious Reform. The reigns of his 
Apostate Sons and details of the Final Catas- 
trophe. (584 B.C.) 


PAGE 
213 


217 
220 
223 


229 


233 


240 
253 


257 


265 
274 
290 


295 


303 


CONTENTS XV 


DATE B.C. PAGE 
THE POEM OF ZEPHANIAH ON “THE DAY OF 


YAHWEH” . . Sie oo eta Cs 8-080 309 
THE BOOK OF THE LAW, BY D>... . . (Found) 621 312 
THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH THE PROPHET ... . ec. 400 343 


(Compiled from the note-books of his disciples.) 
Booklet I. Events and Prophecies in the ee of 


JOSIAH, etn GOS ae ; 343 
Appendix I , Late additions to Booklet i, é 362 
Booklet II. Events and Prophecies in the reign of 

JEHOIKIM, (608-597). . . o74 
Booklet III. Jeremiah’s warnings to Zedekiah and 

his unmerited sufferings, (597-590). yh 379 


Booklet IV. Zedekiah’s pleadings to Jeremiah for 

prophecies of  good-fortune. The Prophet 

ISaKOP LIS Drisole i C.OSo).. Fc. 382 
Booklet V. Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadrezzar. 

Gedaliah made governor; is slain by the royal- 

ists; Jeremiah carried into Egypt by the 

refugees, (584) naan: 386 
Booklet VI. Prophecies of the Return ‘of. the 

Exiles, mostly non-Jeremiahan, but preserving 


some words of the great teacher, (534 Jar oa. 390 
Appendix II. Non-Jeremianic passages found in 

SDOKIOLAGL Viera ts g ote Mge ie!) an ee) yt. 394 

THE PRAISE OF WISDOM (Proverbs 4, 2-ix, 18) . . c 615 399 
THE POEM OF NAHUM, THE ELKOSHITE or “THE 

IMPENDING FALL OF NINEVEH” Shee c. 609 409 
THE POEM OF HABAKKUK ARRAIGNING THE JUS. 

Tink ORSYAHW HHS [eae c. 609 442 
TWO POEMS PROCLAIMING THE MISSION OF ISRAEL 

“THE SERVANT OF YAHWEH” ... c. 518 415 


APPENDIX A. EARLY BELIEFS CONCERNING THE HEBREW SCRIP- 


TURES 50) «SU RN Coen hiv 419 
APPENDIX B. StreEeps TowaArD A FULLER UNDERSTANDING OF THE 

OLp TESTAMENT ..-:. i aka der ee eee 420 
APPENDIX C. DISCOVERIES IN THE NEAR EAST DURING THE LAST 

CENTURY . . ye Sp ae aes Ee 421 


APPENDIX D. EAsiuy OBTAINABLE anes OF eons AUTHORI- 
TIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF BIBLICAL CRITI- 


CSM 47 29 eee ee ery oleh po Se aD 
MAPS 
FACING PAGE 
MAP I. THE CIVILIZED WORLD IN THE THIRD MILLENNIUM B.C. 29 


MAP TI. S&ATS OF THE TWELVE TRIBES BEFORE DAvIn’s REIGN 76 
MAP III. THE TWIN KINGDOMS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL 750 B.C. . 255 


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INTRODUCTION 


The Need for a Thorough Rearrangement of the Text of the Old Testa- 
ment, and How the Necessary Apparatus for So-doing was Obtained. 


THE LITERATURE OF A NATION can be fully estimated only in the 
light of its history. Conversely, it is only from the literature of any 
given period that the historian learns the social and political conditions, 
the conflicting aims and opinions of the people, which vivify and explain 
the movements stated baldly in their annals, for every author is the 
product of his age, and consciously or unconsciously reflects it. Now, 
if these annals are lost, and the literature has been tampered with by 
editors, however well-meaning, to accord with their personal convic- 
tions; if poetry has been mistaken for prose, and much of it presented 
in fragments assigned to a period or author regardless of evident date 
or inherent probability; if overzealous copyists have worked into the 
text explanatory marginal notes or have otherwise marred the integrity 
of the original manuscripts, only a miracle could bring order out of the 
resultant confusion, restore the true sequence of events, and show con- 
vincingly the germs and growth of whatever noble ideals or invaluable 
truths the nation had evolved. Such was the condition of classic Hebrew 
Literature at the opening of the nineteenth century. Then, wonderfully, 
miracles came to pass. 

Two powerful organizations were then aiming to exploit the East 
for their own aggrandizement, the English East India Company, and the 
armies of France under Napoleon in Egypt. But the most astonishing 
and permanent gain of each resulted from the interest of an obscure 
employé in a casual find. 

The first came from India. A clerk in the offices of the East India 
Company found in its lumber-rooms, among its unconsidered spoils of 
war, a mass of well-ordered manuscript written in an unknown tongue. 
He brought it to the attention of Sir William Jones, recently appointed 
Head of the Supreme Court of Caicutta, and already famed for his 
linguistic attainments, especially for his profound knowledge of Persian. 
Sir William announced in 1785 that these MSS. were part of the Sacred 
Books of the ancient Hindus written in Sanskrit, hitherto unknown to 
Europeans, and evidently the mother-tongue from which the principal 
modern languages of Hindustan were derived; moreover, that its gram- 
mar and vocabulary were closely akin, not only to those of Old Persian, 
but also to those of Greek, Latin and the Teutonic languages; and he 
inferred that all the peoples who spoke those languages were originally 
of the same stock. Sir William died in 1794, but not before he had 
shown that Arabie and its congeners, though also highly inflected lan- 
guages, differed radically from the above-mentioned Indo-European 
tongues. Following these suggestions and tracing modern languages to 
their several sources, Jakob Grimm, of the University of Gdttingen, 


XVii 


XVvili THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


published in 1820 his famous “Law of Phonetic Change in Languages”, 
a change inevitable in time. The first great triumph of the application 
of this law was the recovery of the Avestan language, older than any 
Old Persian before known, in which Zoroaster and his disciples had 
written the principles of their noble religion. Upon the basis of these 
discoveries, Franz Boppe, of Mainz, published, between 1829 and 1833, 
the four volumes of his “Analytical and Comparative Study of the Gram- 
mars of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and the Teutonic Languages”, following 
it up in 1837 with “A Comparison of Slavic, Gothic and German.” Mean- 
while, H. F. W. Gesenius, Professor of Theology in the University of 
. Halle, had published his exhaustive “Dictionary of Hebrew and Chaldaic” 
and a “History of the Hebrew Tongue”. Thus was built up a splendid 
apparatus for the thorough analysis and emendation of all the then 
known texts in ancient languages. 

Napoleon opened the way for the second astonishing discovery. All 
literatures show at various periods the influence of their contemporaries. 
English literature affords a striking example. Leaving out of account 
its general tendency, due to the blending of many races in the forming 
of the nation and to the centuries of Christian teaching by the Monastic 
Orders, the impulse for every new departure since Chaucer’s time has 
come from Italy, France, Spain, France again, Germany and Norway; 
yet in every case the persistence of English characteristics and the 
philosophical trend of English thought have moulded the new influence 
into conformity with English ideals. So was it with Hebrew literature. 
As we now know, it successively absorbed elements from the literatures 
of Egypt, Assyria and Persia; but the sources of these elements were 
unsuspected by either Jews or Christians. Native and assimilated ideas 
were alike attributed to direct divine inspiration of the Children of 
Israel alone. Nor until late in the nineteenth century was any literature 
older than the Hebrew known. Greek legends, indeed, traced the Py- 
thagorean philosophy to Egypt, and the earliest laws of the Greeks 
and their knowledge of music to Crete; but even Herodotus (450 B.c.), — 
who closely observed the physical characteristics and present conditions 
of the eastern lands he visited, and gave detailed accounts of the laws, 
customs and religions of their peoples, said nothing of their literatures. 
Now Napolean was a man of insatiable curiosity, intent always upon 
fathoming a subject to its depths. He landed in Egypt in 1798, Bible 
and Herodotus in hand, and accompanied by a body of savants whose 
business if should be to reveal the truth about Egypt to the world. They 
did indeed tear away the veil which had so long enshrouded her and 
reveal her manifold superficial charms, even the daily life and occupa- 
tions of her working-classes and the sports of her Pharaohs in past 
millenniums, pictured for any one to see upon her temple-walls. But 
they found no means of either verifying or disproving the legends con- 
cerning her rulers. There were no writings or even numbers that the 
savants could understand; and Napoleon left Egypt in 1802, disappointed 
in his archeological investigations as well as in his martial aims. 

But in 1799, a young lieutenant of engineers named Broussard, who 
knew something of Greek, had found on the Rosetta branch of the Nile 
a block of basalt on which were inscribed many lines of Greek in an 
almost perfect condition, many other lines, slightly defaced, in an un- 
known cursive writing, and fourteen regularly arranged lines of those 
birds and serpents and lions and arms and legs, &c., so liberally dis- 
tributed about the figures of men and gods upon the temple-walls. He 
suspected that the unknown characters might be a transcription of the 
Greek, and made known his find to the French authorities in Alexandria; 


INTRODUCTION abe 


but little did he dream that here was the key to a buried treasure of 
Egyptian history and literature. The way to it was long and difficult. 
Not until five years after Napoleon’s death did Champollion publish the 
Egyptian alphabet, determinatives and ideograms obtained from the 
“Rosetta Stone” and nearly contemporary inscriptions. Fortunately, all 
were of the Ptolemaic period, i.e., after the Macedonian Conquest; for 
at no other period would Greek and Egyptian inscriptions have been 
engraved together. But it was quite another thing to read the papyri 
and inscriptions found in the tombs of kings and nobles buried one to 
three thousand years before. Still, the clue was now in the hands of 
a little army of workers; and, after fifty years of individual: study, 
comparison of results, disputes and final agreement, scholars were ready 
to give accurate translations of accumulated documents, and of new 
ones from Tell el Amarna and elsewhere towards the end of the cen- 
tury. 

Meanwhile, Henry Rawlinson, an English scholar as well as soldier, 
had found on the “Rock of Behistun”’, far to the east of the Tigris, 
another tri-lingual inscription in Old Persian, Susian, and the wedge- 
shaped characters that had long intrigued travelers in Mesopotamia, and 
which we now call Cuneiform. Well-versed in Old Persian, he succeeded 
in deciphering the Cuneiform inscription, and published a translation 
of it in 1846-7. At the same time, Henry Austen Layard, inspired by the 
notable finds in Egypt, had obtained a firman from the Turkish govern- 
ment to open a remarkable mound near Mosul on the Tigris. (It had 
been opened before by a Frenchman named Botta, but without great 
results.) Mounds do not belong to the geological formation of the Meso- 
potamian plateau; and those which have since been excavated have 
revealed long-buried villages and cities of an early date. This one proved 
to contain the palace of Sargon II., king of Assyria in the eighth 
century B.c. The numerous inscriptions in Cuneiform characters on 
the walls proved that this was the Assyrian form of writing. Later it 
was learned that the Assyrians had adopted it from Babylonia; and that 
thus the laws, literature and science and even the mercantile transac- 
tions of private citizens from 3800 B.c. to the fall of Assyria in 606 B.c. 
could be read. Also, from the glossaries used by the Babylonians in 
their temple-schools, as schoolboys to-day use those in their Latin 
textbooks, we can learn something of the language of the Sumerians, 
the predecessors of the Semitic Babylonians, and, so far as we yet 
know, the Founders of Civilization. 

The value of the discovery of these languages is incalculable. There- 
by, ancient history has been overturned and reset upon a sure founda- 
tion, and each nation fitted into its proper place; science recognizes her 
debt to these first inventors; and the development of the literature and 
religion of all Christendom is now traceable to their origins. For the 
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL built up their kingdoms upon. the ruins of 
those of their kinsmen, the Canaanites, in the very centre of civilization, 
assimilated it, and passed it on through the medium of Christianity to 
the western world. North, east, south and west of them lay the great 
empires that had created it,—the Hittite, the Babylonia-Assyrian, Egypt, 
and the Naval Hegemony of the Afigzean (immortalized by Homer), whose 
leader was Crete. The first and the last were on the verge of extinc- 
tion when the Israelites appeared. The Hittites had fought their last 
great battle at Kadesh-on-the-Orontes between the Lebanons; and a 
remnant of the Cretans, fleeing before the barbarian hordes who were 
to create Greece, had sought the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, 
and were now settled in its southeastern corner, where they remained 


xx, THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


a constant thorn in the flesh for Israel, and, as Philistines, became the 
type of everything opposed to idealism and spiritual growth. There 
remained Egypt and Assyria; the latter now in the ascendant in the 
dual Semitic empire between the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf; the 
former, under Rameses II., of the Nineteenth Dynasty, had just har- 
rowed her rebellious Syrian provinces into subjection, and almost de- 
populated Canaan, already reduced by inroads of Hittites and Philistines. 
It may be that the great leader of the Israelites saw herein a heaven- 
sent opportunity to establish his brethren in the home of their fore- 
fathers, amidst the ancient culture of their race. 


The mutilation and disarrangement of the Hebrew writings could 
not greatly obscure the superb genius of their authors, their keen ob- 
servation of the life and character of their contemporaries, their clear 
foresight of the results of unbridled self-indulgence, wanton disregard 
of the sufferings of the poor and disobedience to the primary laws of 
God. So also stand forth boldly the beautiful expansions of the Ten 
Words attributed to Moses, and the insistence upon the only social and 
economic relations between man and man upon which the world’s 
progress to stable government can be based. Here are masterpieces of 
prose and poetry whose manifold perfections of style have been the 
standard for all the literatures of Christendom; here, too, that recogni- 
tion of one Creator and Ruler of the universe, just, unchangeable and 
true, the Father of all mankind without distinction of race or degree, 
which was proclaimed by the prophets of the eighth century B.c., 
when all other peoples, civilized or barbarous, were steeped in super- 
stition, and worshiping gods who were at best but supermen. Portions 
of these writings, selected to be read or commented upon in temple or 
Synagogue or as “lessons” in Christian churches, are incomparable for 
instruction, warning or consolation, or for inspiration to high endeavor. 
But read or studied consecutively as the writing of the single author to 
whom they are attributed,—as Moses, Joshua, Samuel or the prophets— 
they are full of defects. The “Historical Books” (Genesis to 2 Kings) 
give variant versions of the same incidents which involve strange dis- 
crepancies, sometimes flat contradictions; and in the “Books of the 
Prophets” (Isaiah to Malachi) occur abrupt changes of style and sub- 
ject, interpolations of foreign matter and sometimes passages of utter 
bathos, impossible to ascribe to such masters of form and treatment of 
subject-matter as the bulk of the work reveals. 

Devoted and clear-thinking students, both Jew and Christian, strove 
to reconcile these anomalies by various theories of interpretation which 
only served to “darken counsel by words without knowledge”. They 
could only propound theories, for they had no facts to go upon. The 
Jews fell back upon the dictum of Josephus, that the writers “spake 
some things wisely but enigmatically and others by decent allegory”. 
In the Christian Church it became the custom to ascribe all difficulties 
to the loss of parts of the original documents during the terrible vicis- 
situdes which the nation had undergone. Yet it was fully demonstrable 
that no change had been made in the “Canon of the Law” (the first five 
books of the Old Testament, closed c. B.c. 400) nor in the “Canon of the 
Prophets” (closed much later), without the consent of the Sanhedrim, 
the governing body in Judea after the Persian Conquest. The whole 
collection of Hebrew writings was early translated into Aramaic (the 
Targums) for the use of the laity in Palestine and Syria, since that was 
the language of Damascus, the centre of trade between the East and the 
West; for, long before the present era, Hebrew had become a dead 
language, used only in the temple-service and by the priests. In Egypt, 


INTRODUCTION Xxi 


the first Ptolemies (B.c. 323-171), lovers and patrons of learning, caused 
it to be translated into Greek (the Septuagint) for the use of their 
Jewish subjects, who then formed one-third of the population of Alex- 
andria, had a flourishing colony and a temple in Upper Egypt and 
another twenty miles north of the present city of Cairo,—a little replica 
of Jerusalem and her Temple. Later, when Christianity had come 
into favor with the Roman Emperors and was soon to be the State reli- 
gion, Saint Jerome (Hieronymus) went to Jerusalem and, with the aid 
of learned rabbis, made a translation of the Hebrew Canon into Latin 
which became the authorized version of the Roman Church. Small 
wonder that these translations, as well as the original, soon became 
sacrosanct; and any one who charged them with defect ran the risk of 
excommunication in both the Jewish Church and the Christian. Such 
was the fate of Pelagius, Abelard, Spinoza and others; while Maimonides, 
Galileo and, in the nineteenth century, St. George Mivart escaped it only 
by recantation or specious argument. In view of the number of excep- 
tions to the text taken by the greatest scholars of the Middle Ages, the 
Christian Church withdrew the Scriptures from common use, and the 
majority of the priests studied and taught only Peter Lombard’s “Sen- 
tences” (Sententiarum Libri Quattuor), books of “Opinions” drawn 
from the writings of the early “Fathers of the Church”, 


Analysis of the So-Called “Historical Books” 


HISTORY is not usually classified as Literature. Their domains are 
too far asunder. The one recounts facts, the other gives expression to 
thoughts and emotions. History searches out and tells the course of 
past events; Literature interweaves the ideals of the past with those 
of the present, and gives inspiration for the future. The tone of 
History is unimpassioned, judicial; Literature, even when most tranquil 
and tranquilizing, is penetrated with feeling. The Hebrew Historical 
Books are all highly emotional. It is as literature, therefore, that we 
are compelled to regard them and apply to them the same method of 
analysis and criticism as to other literature. 

The Historical Books, taken as a whole, are the work of four major 
writers, all anonymous, but distinguished by scholars as J, E, D, and P. 
The bulk of it up to 850 B.c. comes from J; to P (priestly writer or band 
of writers) is due the annalistic framework in which are set the writings 
of the other three, each of which had been edited and re-edited before P 
combined them and interpolated statistics and geographical and genea- 
logical details. None of the editing was like that of the present day, 
which aims to discover and hold intact the original text of the author; 
rather it resembles that of the Elizabethan and Restoration playwrights, 
who cut out or added scenes to meet the needs of some special repre- 
sentation, or to cater to the tastes of another age. As P’s combination 
was made after both kingdoms had fallen, and the Exile was a thing 
of the past, the consideration of his share in the completed Canon will 
be given in Part II. of this edition. 

A prime requisite of history is continuity. In the Historical Books 
it is conspicuously lacking. Instead, we have a series of dramatic 
scenes, vigorously drawn. The actors in them live. We hear their 
word-combats, we can weigh their arguments. Comments are dis- 
pensed with. Pathetic situations and stirring deeds are left to make 
their own impression. But many decades, even centuries, during which 
the conditions and animus of the next scene were preparing, are passed 
over in silence, or with the brief formula, ‘and the land had rest forty 
years” (or forty-five or thirty-one or four-score as the case might be), 


xxii THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


or with some slight mention of the reigns of intervening rulers. The 
life of the nation, from the Exodus to the conquest of all southwestern 
Asia by Alexander of Macedon, covered some nine hundred years. As 
given in this panorama, begun by J and carried on by P and the Chroni- 
cler, it divides into seven periods of each of which the beginning is 
pictured with profuse detail and the end strongly condensed. These 
periods are: 


1. The Exodus from Egypt and the Settlement in Canaan (c. 1220- 
1760 B.C; 

2. The Rise of Monarchy under Saul, its expansion under David and 
consolidation under Solomon (c. 1050-960 B.c.) ; 

3. The Division of the kingdom after the death of Solomon into the 
twin kingdoms of Israel (N.) and Judah (S.) (937-850 B.c.) ; 

4, The Predominance of Israel until conquered by Assyria in 722 B.c.; 

5. The Brilliant Literary Period in Judah until its conquest by 
Nebuchadrezzar the Chaldean, and the Deportation of its higher classes 
into Babylonia (765-586 B.C.) ; 

6. The Conquest of Babylonia and its dependencies by Cyrus the 
Persian (538 B.C.) ; 

7. The Second great Literary Period in Judea under Persian rule, 
and the re-establishment of Theocracy (535-332 B.c.). 


There is a supplementary period which begins with the rule of the 
Greeks, includes the Revolt of the Maccabees (167 B.c.) and ends with 
the death of Herod the Great (4 B.c.); but its history is consigned to 
the Apocrypha, because it adds nothing to the development of the Re- 
ligion of Israel. It enters into’Biblical Literature, however, as part of 
the Apocalyptic Vision in “Daniel”, and because it furnishes the back- 
ground of much of the late “Wisdom Literature” of the Jews. 


IT WAS IN the ninth century B.c., when Ahab was king in Israel and 
Jehoshaphat in Judah, that a literary genius and philosopher of the first 
order originated the above arrangement of the material at his command 
for the solution of a problem of absorbing interest. His name is un- 
known, but scholars call him J because he was evidently of the southern 
kingdom (Judah), and because he invariably calls the national God 
Yahweh or Yah (Heb. Jahweh or Yah). J was not primarily interested 
in historical research. The Israelites knew already all the facts he 
could give them. In the long peaceful years of their tribal life, broken 
only by the few forays that furnished the subjects for their folk-songs 
and tales, they had reveled in stories of the prowess of their tribal 
heroes, and sung the victories of Yahweh: How Joshua and Caleb, the 
tribe of Judah, and Deborah “the prophetess, wife of Lapidoth, who judged 
Israel” had successively brought the Canaanites into subjection; How 
Jephthah had defended their northeastern frontier, and Gideon had 
driven from the heart of the land the marauding Bedouin; How Samson 
paid for his youthful exploits against the hated Philistines, but later 
took an awful reprisal for the same. All these were done in the name. 
of their militant God, Yahweh. From the Canaanites in their midst— 
(“For, when Israel became strong, they subjected the Canaanites to 
forced labor but did not dispossess them, . . . the Canaanites 
lived in the midst of them”), they learned the old Babylonian legends 
of the early world; which were probably current in writing before they 
entered the land. Those of their own heroes had been collected, prob- 
ably in Solomon’s time, in two anthologies, “The Wars of Yahweh” and 
“The Book of the Upright” (Heb. Jashar.) In creating his Cabinet, 
David had appointed a Recorder, and Solomon, after building his temple, 


INTRODUCTION Xxill 


had appointed scribes among its officials; so that State and Temple 
Records were available for Israelite writers as for those of other nations. 
Chronicles of these two kings and Commentaries upon the Acts of the 
non-literary prophets (or teachers) had also been written. All of 
these works, now lost, were at the disposal of J when he set himself 
to answer the question: Why have not the promises of Moses been 
fulfilled? For now, in this ninth century B.c. and the third since their 
complete possession of Canaan, Assyria, the great empire in the east, 
was again upon the war-path and had already overthrown Babylonia. 
But the Israelites were not alarmed. If Assyria should come west of 
the Euphrates, Damascus would turn her northward as she had done 
before. If necessary, however, the Twin Kingdoms would bring to her 
aid their unconquerable God, Yahweh, who, according to His promises, 
would always lead the Children of Israel to victory when they called 
upon Him. 

It was an unwarranted assumption. No such unconditioned promise 
had Moses brought them. Well he knew that his brethren were en- 
feebled in body and dulled in soul by the long oppression they had 
undergone. All that he could build on to raise their morale was the 
tenacity with which they clung to traditions of their forefathers and of 
the promises their God had given them—traditions of Abraham, their 
progenitor, noble in character, strong in self-control, obedient to the 
promptings of his conscience; of Jacob (Israel), to whom God had 
promised the land of Canaan for his descendants; of Joseph, whom 
his brethren had sold into Egypt, and whom his native sagacity and 
diligence had raised to the highest office in the land, whereby he saved 
its people and his own family from starvation, and fixed the royal 
revenue on a firm basis. Relying on these examples to inspire his 
brethren with faith and courage, Moses brought them a Covenant with 
Yahweh, who had revealed Himself to him on Sinai as the God of the 
Patriarchs, the Creator of heaven and earth, by whatever name He 
might be called. Yahweh would deliver the Children of Israel from 
their task-masters, guide them to the Promised Land and protect them 
therein, provided that they would obey His laws. These laws were 
simple. They ordained little outward observance. ‘Their substance 
could be summed in one command; Obey and be loyal to Yahweh, your 
benefactor, and do to others as you would have them do to you. They 
were not prescribed for emergencies, but for daily living. As inter- 
preted by Moses, they demanded the exercise of reason and aroused the 
conscience. Doubtless, few of the Israelites understood at first to what 
they bound themselves; probably only those “elders” to whom Moses 
first submitted the Covenant, and who later ratified it in the presence 
of Jethro, priest of Midian; for, almost on the morrow of their escape, 
many of the fugitives were complaining of the hardships of the journey 
and stirring up sedition, and few months passed without a mutiny. 
With inexhaustible patience Moses endured their insubordination and 
open insolence, put them under strict discipline, and appointed judges 
to settle their disputes. Then, after two years of training, he brought 
them to the southern border of the Promised Land. 

Did Moses believe that the sight of it would make the tribes pluck 
up spirit to fight for it? Not they. Not only did they refuse to make 
the attempt, but they proposed to elect another leader to guide them 
back to Egypt. Like many a later philanthropist, Moses was at last 
compelled to recognize that gratitude, which prompts the noble soul to 
ready obedience, is practically dead in those who have only obeyed the 
lash. Perforce he gave up the adults, and turned them all back to the 


XXiV THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


simple life and invigorating climate of the steppes, there to bring up 
the children to a sense of the high mission he dreamed for them,—to 
uphold the liberty and equal rights of all men under the rule of their 
powerful though invisible God and King. More than a generation later, 
Joshua and Caleb, who alone had sympathized with and staunchly sup- 
ported him during the whole migration, carried out the first condition 
of his plan and brought into Canaan a stalwart and eager band of 
warriors prepared to keep and spread the knowledge of their Covenant 
with Yahweh. Alas, in a few decades, the beauty of the land with its 
rich gifts of corn and wine and ease of living had allured their descend- 
ants to a laxity of morals and distinction of classes utterly opposed to 
His laws. 

Looking back from his standpoint of the ninth century through many 
such lapses, consequent humiliations and new beginnings, J found the 
answer to his question in the blind indifference of his brethren to the 
teachings of experience (teachings embodied in the very tales they so 
delighted in), and hence the constant repetition of the old self-indul- 
gence, old disobedience to the laws of right living, old ingratitude to 
God and injustice to their fellows. He set himself, therefore, not only 
to assemble these scattered lessons and show their meaning, but to 
trace Man’s growth in intelligence, dignity and worth to the world 
through obedience to the inner promptings of right reason; and the 
inevitable disaster to himself and the world through a weak yielding 
to every selfish impulse. 

The thesis of J begins with the condition of primitive man, newly 
conscious of free agency and the power of invention, not yet competent 
to see cause for gratitude, and therefore for obedience, in the gift of 
reason. Next he shows the innate sense of justice displayed by Abel 
in his grateful offering to the Giver of all good things, and the dire 
destruction of all social life which Cain’s breach of the innate bond of 
kinship would entail. How small a percentage of men make a right 
use of privilege he shows in the story of the preservation of righteous 
Noah and his family; and how futile the presumptuous dependence 
upon the righteousness of ancestors as a shield against just punishment, 
in that of the Tower of Babel. He portrays the Patriarchs, none of 
them perfect, but always growing towards perfection by living in close 
communion with God; and he shows how far below them the immi- 
grants from Egypt had fallen, in spite of the inspired teaching of 
Moses, their advance in material prosperity and culture, and the con- 
stant efforts of many teachers, such as Samuel and Nathan, to keep 
them to their covenant. He brings in examples of the evil bred of evil 
from recent events in the sister kingdom of Israel, contrasting them 
with the wisdom of their own king Asa and the consequent peace in 
Judah; but he feels sure that neither of the Twin Kingdoms can hope 
for help from Yahweh against onslaughts of “heathen peoples”, unless 
they both reform. 

The place of J is not among historians, though necessarily he has 
given us many historical incidents, and the ancestors of his nation live 
in his pages; but he must be classed with the great philosophers and 
religious reformers of all ages. Twenty-five hundred years before Vico 
published his Scienza Nuova, and initiated the modern method of writing 
history, J brilliantly illustrated its highest uses. And, for command 
of dramatic situation, powerful delineation of character and subtle dis- 
tinction of motive, he is still unsurpassed. 

The next great writer came from the Northern Kingdom. Like J 
he is anonymous, and is called E because he uses the word Elohim 


INTRODUCTION XXV 


(Strong ones) as the name of Deity. Hence the two are also distin- 
guished as the “Yahwist” and the “Elohist”. The latter wrote in the 
eighth century, about a hundred years after J. He too found his material 
in current traditions; but either those of the north differed greatly 
from those of the south, or the two authors differed widely in their 
preferences. So far as we can judge, E had no thesis to sustain, but 
gathered various interesting stories of the heroes of the northern tribes, 
and was careful to determine the scenes of their activity. E leans to 
narrative as J to the dramatic. Unlike J, he gives little foundation for 
psychological study: in his accounts of the Exodus. J is careful to give 
natural causes for the wonders wrought in Egypt; E delights in the 
miraculous. For E, Moses is a mere mouthpiece for the Divine mes- 
sage; a messenger who reports verbatim; but he is a great enchanter, 
who governs the winds and waves, and brings disasters to pass by the 
waving of a wand. He even converts the wand into a serpent, as 
Pharaoh’s magicians can also do; but Moses is greater than they. Evi- 
dently EK was well acquainted with Egyptian folk-lore, which abounds 
in miracles; he also uses Egyptian titles and gives several of his char- 
acters Egyptian names. He draws few philosophical conclusions from 
his facts. 

As J was contemporary with Elijah and possibly one of his disciples, 
yet left it to another hand to give the striking account of his career, 
so EK, who was contemporary with at least three of the four literary 
prophets of his century who carried on and accentuated J’s exhortations 
to religious reform, makes no mention of them. Apparently his interest 
was in the past, or he was too timid to chronicle actions and words so 
unpopular at court as those of Amos and Hosea; but we are greatly 
indebted to him for many an intimate detail in the lives of Israel’s 
heroes, and for his masterly presentment of both humor and pathos. 
While by no means the equal of J for profound insight and clear reason- 
ing, he is a most graphic narrator, and his style is both graceful and 
pungent. 

_ Less than twenty years after E had finished his work, Tiglath Pileser 
III., king of Assyria, appeared on the northern frontier of Israel, cap- 
tured a few towns and deported their inhabitants, replacing them with 
his own people, and thus securing the head waters of the Jordan. Then 
he retired for a time. But, finding that Hoshea, king of Israel, was 
negotiating with Egypt to withstand him, he reappeared and laid siege 
to Samaria, the great fortress-capital of Israel and the rival of Jeru- 
salem. The siege lasted three years; and when the city was finally 
taken, the Kingdom of Israel, which for over two hundred years had 
been the barrier between Egypt and Assyria, came to an end; the leading 
men of the tribes, the “Ten Lost Tribes”, were deported, and no trace 
of them has ever been found. Yet, only forty years before, Jeroboam 
II., their greatest warrior-king, had regained all the neighboring territory 
conquered by David and left to Solomon; and he was contemplating the 
conquest of Judah and the reunion of the two kingdoms when he died. 
Had his plan been carried out, all the tribes of Israel might have 
perished together, the great uplifting power of Hebrew literature might 
have been strangled in its birth, the very name of its instigator for- 
gotten, and we might still be openly worshiping Melech and Astarte, or 
such gods as Tiberius, Nero and Caligula. But Judah in her mountain 
fastnesses was spared; for “God meant it for good, to bring to pass the 
saving of many people alive.” 


The immediate result for Hebrew literature of the devastation of 


XXvl THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


the Northern Kingdom, the destruction of its records and the deporta- 
tion of all who might have recalled its cherished traditions and 
replaced its writings, was a unique production which it is safe to say 
has caused more misunderstanding and discussion than any other 
work in literature. The Kingdom of Israel fell in 722 B.c. Before the 
end of the century, a patriotic but undiscriminating writer, striving to 
preserve at least its most sacred traditions, had grafted upon J’s noble 
thesis the narratives of E in such fashion as to produce those strange 
discrepancies and contradictions already spoken of, the explanation of 
which has necessitated nearly a century of close study. The well- 
intentioned author of this confusion is appropriately called JE. How 
much of J’s impressive argument and graphic illustration he sacrificed 
to his admiration of E, it is impossible to tell; but we are indebted 
to him not only for all we know of the latter, but also for the preserva- 
tion of the two very ancient law-codes, the “Book of the Covenant” and 
the “Law of Holiness”, both attributed with great probability to Moses, 
but later distributed by P among the laws that the tribes found in 
Canaan. 


The awful object-lesson in the fate of the Ten Tribes, “which kept 
not the commandments of Yahweh their God, but walked in the statutes 
of the heathen and of the kings of Israel’, had not been without effect 
upon Judah. The Assyrian army was nearing Jerusalem, and its heralds 
were stirring up the populace to revolt against their king and put them- 
selves under the protection of Assyria. Therefore, acting upon the 
counsels of Isaiah, the cousin and couniellor of the king, Hezekiah and 
his Court rushed to the Temple, and with solemn prayer and sacrifice 
besought Yahweh for the honor of His name to save His Chosen People, 
And, marvelous to relate, Sennacherib raised the siege (whether because 
of a plague in the camp, as one writer gives it, or, according to an- 
other, because of tidings of a revolt at home), and Judah was saved. 
The deliverance was followed by a reform which lasted till Hezekiah’s 
death; but his son and successor, Manasseh, did his utmost to root out 
the pure worship of Yahweh, substituting for it the licentious and 
cruel rites of the “gods of the nations”. The rich resumed their old 
habits of luxurious living with its attendant evils; the poor were 
hideously oppressed; and the king “filled Jerusalem with innocent 
blood”. ‘Tradition ascribes to him the martyrdom of the venerable 
Isaiah. The fifty-seven years of the reigns of Manasseh and his son 
Amon were an orgy of all that is most vile in irresponsible tyranny, 
the worst blot on the history of David’s line. Nevertheless, from it 
was born, through revulsion of popular feeling, and the immediate 
instrumentality of D, the great reformation of Josiah’s reign which 
established the Law on which was to be founded that “New Covenant” 
(Jer. xxxi, 31-34) which is the basis of all spiritual religion, and which 
Christ came “not to destroy, but to fulfil’. 

The graphic account of the occasion and completion of this reform is 
given in 2 Ki. xxi, 23—xxill, 25. It begins: “The servants of Amon con- 
spired against him and slew him in his own house; and the people of 
the land slew all that had conspired against King Amon, and made Josiah 
his son king in his stead”. Thus the people cleared the way for the 
return of the priests of the ancient faith, under whose training and 
advice the boy-king grew up. Evidently he came to an impoverished 
kingdom; but in his twenty-sixth year he commanded that the people’s 
voluntary offerings to the Temple should be used to remove every 
vestige of the altars to all sorts of foreign gods with which Manasseh 
had defiled it, to repair the breaches in its walls, and thoroughly to 


INTRODUCTION XXvili 


restore its dignity and beauty. At some time during this restoration, 
the High Priest announced: “I have found the Book of the Law in the 
House of Yahweh”; and Josiah accepted it and acted upon it. 


What is this epoch-making “Book of the Law”? It purports to give 
verbatim Moses’ farewell words of counsel, warning and encouragement 
to the sons of the bondmen whom he had brought out of Egypt, and 
whom he had trained from childhood to establish a unique nation of 
freemen, self-governed under the promptings of gratitude to their benefi- 
cent God and King. But it is a late work, and no hint of any such 
address is given by any previous writer. Its language, free from archa- 
isms, its form and its easy, flowing rhythm bear the stamp of high 
literary culture, the outcome of a long period of previous use. Jeremiah 
and later writers show its influence, notably in their adoption of its 
marked phraseology, of which there is no trace in the previous century; 
while its author is as evidently imbued with the lofty idealism first 
voiced by the poet-prophets of that century. It also presupposes forms 
of idolatry unmentioned by the same prophets, and presumably unknown 
in Judah before the apostasy of Manasseh. From this and other evidence 
we conclude that it could not have been written before the reign of 
Manasseh, nor, in all likelihood, long before it was found. It is free 
from those “redactions” from which it would surely have suffered had it 
not come fresh from the author’s hand to the eye and heart of the 
king. A very few foreign lines, mostly repetitions, have crept into the 
text, and a later hand inserted the superb “Song of Moses” and “Blessing 
of Moses”; part of chapter xxvii, also, is either an interpolation or has 
lost a connecting link; but the main body of the work is a unit, appar- 
ently written currente calamo under the urgency of a special need. It 
falls easily into the divisions of a great oration, of which, indeed, it is 
the earliest known. 

A noble EXORDIUM briefly reviews the Exodus, and brings the 
hearer to the time and place of delivery,—the ford of the Jordan, and 
the eve of the Crossing into Canaan. The force of the aged leader is 
spent; he must not set foot in the Promised Land; Joshua must complete 
his work. But how will it be when his voice is hushed and no one else 
may have the same sense of intimate communion with God? when no 
one can say: Yahweh bade me speak this and this? He himself, 
therefore, must once more impress upon his beloved children the laws 
of right reason and right living, adjuring them by all they hold most 
dear to love their God “with all their heart and with all their soul and 
with all their strength”, and gratefully to obey Him for love’s sake. 
Next comes the STATEMENT of the original laws, the Decalogue, and 
of the People’s choice of him, Moses, to be their intermediary between 
them and Yahweh and the expositor of His will. Then come the 
EXPOSITIONS; first, of the inner meaning of the laws of the First 
Table,—their Duty towards God; secondly, the detailed application of 
the other six laws,—their Duty towards their Fellow-men. 'Then comes 
the DEDUCTION or COROLLARY,—the blessings that shall reward their 
obedience, and the evils that will be their curse if they disobey. 
Finally, with a magnificent PERORATION (ch. xxix, 2-9 and xxx, 11-20), 
the oration ends, and with it the work of D. 

A superb piece of oratory! but far more—a dramatic creation of the 
imagination in a supreme effort to deliver the once “holy nation” from 
a slavery as much worse than that of Egypt as sin eats deeper than hard 
labor into the forces of life. With the audacity of genius, D brings 
before them in their degradation the figure of their great leader at the 
most heart-moving crisis of his career. Not for a moment does he let 


XXViil THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


them forget Moses’ advanced age and failing powers as he repeats again 
and again his anxious forebodings and pathetic entreaties. (It was 
another hand that wrote “his eye was not dimmed nor his natural force 
abated”.) By impassioned sympathy D has entered into the mind of 
the great law-giver, has comprehended the wisdom and ideals implicit 
in his laws, and emphasized them by appeals not to the reason but to 
the heart. At the fitting moment, for which doubtless he had watched 
as Moses had watched for the moment to advance upon Canaan, D 
prudently placed the document where it would certainly be found; but 
not too easily, since it must be believed to come out of the sacred past, 
and its author must remain forever unknown or his purpose could not 
be achieved. How far otherwise it might have been received we may 
learn from the treatment of Amos by the High Priest of Bethel (Am. 
vii, 10-13), or of Jeremiah’s scroll by Jehoiakim, son of Josiah (Jer. 
xxxvi, 21-25). The form of the work has been a model for orators. As 
a Dramatic Monologuist, D was the forerunner of such literary artists 
as Walter Mapes, Marlowe and Pope, Tennyson and Browning; but he 
remains for all time as far greater than they as his aim was higher; 
and when Theocracy was revived after the Exile, it was built up upon 
this Book of Deuteronomy, thought to be Moses’ Second Giving of the 
Law. 

King Josiah carried out a drastic reform not only in Judah but in 
the cities of Samaria, and among the rural population of Israel whom 
Shalmaneser IV. had left when he deported the prominent families 
of the Ten Tribes. But Josiah could not renew the dread of Yahweh’s 
mysterious power which had aforetime held “the heathen peoples” in 
awe. That had disappeared forever when Ahaz, father of Hezekiah, 
scorning the counsels of Isaiah, then a young man, had turned to the 
“arm of flesh” for protection, and offered tribute to Assyria, paying it by 
despoiling the Temple of Solomon of its treasures. Later in his career, 
Isaiah saw considerable merit in Ahaz’s policy in view of the changed - 
conditions of the age, and used it as the basis of his doctrine of pacifism. 
Judah had neither army nor abundant food-supplies to compete with 
either of the great empires. Her eminence henceforth would lie in the 
superior nobility of her religion. Yahweh would determine when 
the “yoke of her burden” should be broken. Meanwhile, her “strength 
was to sit still”. In the eyes of his contemporaries, it had been happy 
for Judah if Josiah and his sons had obeyed this warning. Josiah died 
all too young in a futile attempt to turn back the invading army of the 
Egyptians. On the other hand, his son and grandson, siding with Egypt, 
brought upon themselves the wrath of Nebuchadrezzar, the destruction 
of Jerusalem and her temple, and the same fate that had befallen Israel 
in the deportation of her people. But God sees not as man sees. Josiah’s 
reform, like Hezekiah’s, had affected only the outward aspect of her 
national life; it had neither touched the heart nor inspired sound 
morality in the majority of the people. Such reform cannot be brought 
about by mandate. But, from the bitter sorrows of exile; from the 
compulsory abolition of caste; from intimate acquaintance with despotic 
military government and a fatalistic religion, the Children of Israel 
were to return in the third generation to the land of their fathers with 
a strong conviction of the wisdom of their prophets and of the high 
value of their own laws and religion for ensuring happiness and the 
highest development of mankind. 

When the populace slew the murderers of King Amon, brought 
back the priesthood of their ancient faith to the Temple and set a 
promising young prince upon the throne, they prepared the way for 


INTRODUCTION xxix 


a brilliant literary period analogous to that of the Stuarts in England. 
The land was at peace. The language was at its best, purified from 
archaisms and as yet free from Aramaisms. The poets of the eighth 
century, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, had set a high standard 
which those of the seventh must needs emulate. Literature of all kinds, 
therefore, flourished. Of it have been preserved poems by several 
authors interested in the fate of their neighboring enemies, though 
remaining blind to any danger for themselves; the noble “Praise of 
Wisdom” (Prov. i-ix), the forerunner of the “Wisdom-literature” of the 
Persian period; also after Nebuchadrezzar had made his first attack 
upon Jerusalem and carried away the king, the queen-mother and all 
the Court-officials, Habakkuk’s striking impeachment of the justice of 
Yahweh, which started the question worked out later in the Book of 
Job. But of far greater interest than any of these, not excepting the 
Book of Deuteronomy on which they all turned, is the “Book of Jere- 
miah”, which covers the period of Josiah’s maturity and the troublous 
reigns of his successors, and throws a searching light upon the proud 
self-sufficiency of the Court and Temple officials and the degeneracy of 
the people, which brought the kingdom of Judah to an end. The prose 
portions of it, however, are from a Biography of the Prophet, written 
some while after the catastrophe of the Exile, and after all trace of 
him had probably been lost, for there is no mention of his death. It 


comes properly, therefore, under consideration with the other pre-exilic 
Prophetical Books. 


Revision of the Books of the Prophets 


A SPECIAL DIFFICULTY met the critics in the analysis of the pro- 
phetical books. When Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans (67-70 
B.c.) the Sanhedrim fled to Jamnia near the sea coast (as the French 
Government fled during the late war from Paris to Bordeaux) taking with 
them three copies of their Sacred Scriptures rescued from the Temple. 
These furnished the material for a careful emendation of the text early 
in the next century by the Rabbi Agiba; which excellent version was 
authorized for use in the synagogues of the Diaspora (the Dispersed). 
Now classic Hebrew, like all the other languages of the Western Semites, 
was written without vowels. Vowels are not necessary to any living 
language; they merely facilitate rapid reading at sight. The meaning 
of any combination of letters is determined by the context (e.g., ally, 
n., and ally, v.; cdntract, n., and contract, v.); if this were not so, under- 
standing of the spoken word would be impossible. But when a language 
is no longer in daily use, and when these differences of meaning have 
not been familiar from childhood, there is large room for mistake. 
Also, the sound of the letters changes in time; rough breathings become 
smooth, vowels are flattened, strong dentals become sibilants and gut- 
turals vanish. There are even two modern nations that have the 
same grammar and vocabulary and noble literatures equally intelligible 
to the eye for both, who yet can not converse with each other without 
considerable practice. The Norwegian says: We speak the language 
as it is written, fhe Danes slur it over. To obviate such mutilation of 
their scriptures in reading or cantilation, a band of Jewish scholars 
of the fifth century A.D. who called themselves Masoretes (followers of 
tradition), devised a system of vowel-points and accent-signs which 
should fix for all time the sonorous beauty of the language as it had 
been used in the Temple. It may be doubted if they even nearly 
succeeded; but at least it fixed for modern ears the pronunciation of 


XXX THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


their own day. But these tiny points and accents introduced a new 
possibility of error when applied by even the most painstaking copy- 
ists, and modern scholars are still at work correcting misplaced points 
that have converted nouns into verbs or participles and vice versa, to 
the obvious distortion of the meaning. 

But the Masoretes made a grave error of their own. Not satisfied 
with one system of accents for prose, they made, as was well, another 
for poetry; but they limited its use to the so-called “Poetical Books” 
(Psalms, Proverbs and Job) and to certain passages in the Historical 
Books distinctly called “Songs”. It was not until 1753 that an Enlgish- 
man, Robert Lowth, them Professor of Poetry in Oxford, electrified both 
England and the Continent by publishing lectures upon Hebrew Poetry 
which pointed out its laws, and later illustrated their use in a thorough 
analysis of the Book of Isaiah. In consequence, there soon appeared 
a “Paragraph Bible” in which the poetry (by far the larger part) of the 
Prophetical Books was distinguished by insetting the lines and be- 
ginning each with a capital. This method was first followed in the 
“Revised Version” and more fully developed in Prof. Moulton’s “Modern 
Reader’s Bible” and in the Temple edition of the Authorized Version; 
but it remained for Wellhausen and the later critics to discover, while 
emending the text and excising the foreign matter now rejected, the 
great aid afforded by their knowledge of these laws. They are as follows: 


a. Each line has two distinct parts, which together have from five 
to seven accented syllables, or stresses, separated by one, two or more 
unaccented syllables, and not by a fixed number as in our modern poetry. 
The lines are also grouped in couplets with an occasional triplet. 

b. Between the two parts of a line, or between the two lines of a 
couplet, is a marked Parallelism in thought or structure. This parallel- 
ism is of three kinds: Synonymous, Anthithetic, and Synthetic. Later 
critics have added a fourth, Climactice. 

c. The Parallelism is Synonymous if the second half-line, or second 
line, enforces the thought by repeating it in almost the same words as 
in the first, but with an added detail which enhances the meaning. If 
the second line, or second half-line enforces the original statement by 
a contrasting one given in similar form, the parallelism is Antithetie. 
In Synthetic parallelism, there is necessary only a parallel order of gram- 
matical forms; 7.e., noun answering to noun, verb to verb, phrase to 
phrase, while the thought is expanded or confirmed. Climactic paral- 
lelism may be carried through a triplet or group of couplets, longer or 
shorter as the emotion to be expressed requires. This form corresponds 
in great measure with the Greek strophe. 

d. A refrain of one or more lines may be used either at the beginning 
or the end of a strophe or of a succession of strophes. 


The growth and perfecting of these varieties of parallelism, group- 
ing and stress of lines is well illustrated in “Proverbs”, the only one 
of the Poetical Books of which any part was written before the Exile. 
It is made up of collections of ethical teachings coming from widely 
separated periods. The oldest consists of chapters x to xv, and is a 
series of aphorisms connected only by their general purpose and stereo- 
typed verse-form. The latter has all the rigidity of a first conscious 
attempt at literary style. Each aphorism is expressed in a single line 
(in the Hebrew), of which each half-line is three-stressed and in perfect 
antithetic parallelism with the other half. The collection is a treasury 
of shrewd common-sense and worldly wisdom directed towards the 
attainment of health, wealth, comfort and length of days; but of poetry 
ate is not a whit. It bears the simple heading, “The Proverbs of 

olomon”, 


INTRODUCTION XXxl 


Evidently of a later period are chapters xvi—xxii, 16. The language 
is more flexible, the parallelism is synonymous, tending to expand the 
thought, which is no longer confined to a single line, but is carried 
through a couplet. Metaphors appear and one or two similes. There 
is warmth of feeling and a higher moral tone than before. Stress is 
laid upon righteousness. The presence of Yahweh to shield, to guide, 
to justify the righteous man is constantly assumed, and the king is His 
mouthpiece. But between this collection and the next two chapters 
(seemingly a father’s counsels to his son, chapter xxii, 17—xxiv), are 
striking differences which indicate a further advance in literary art. 
The tone is gracious, even intimate. Figures abound. The monotonous 
succession of three-three stressed lines is broken by three-two or four- 
four stressed lines. The subject is now confined to a couplet, now over- 
flows into a longer or shorter strophe. Sometimes a half-line is left 
without its parallel, thus marking the conclusion all the more strongly. 
One is reminded of Shakespeare’s or Dryden’s powerful uncompleted 
lines. Many critics hold that this “appendix”, which amplifies the 
subjects of the second collection, is from the hand or at least by a 
contemporary of the editor who, just before the Exile, gathered together 
all the current maxims of the “Wise Men” (including those “copied out 
by the men of Hezekiah”), and prefaced them with the superb “Praise 
of Wisdom” (ch. i-ix) which exhibits the mastery of subject and graceful 
presentment of the best writings of the Golden Age. The rest of the 
book is made up of short collections from a very late period. 

No loss of any early literature is more to be regretted than that of 
the two Hebrew anthologies, “The Wars of Yahweh” and “The Book of 
the Upright”, frequently referred to and sometimes quoted in the 
Historical Books. Compiled towards the end of David’s reign or the 
beginning of Solomon’s, they. must have contained much of the popular 
poetry which furnished material for J and E. (An interesting glimpse 
of their use of it is given in the Book of Judges (ch. iv-v), where the 
ancient martial ode of Deborah is set side by side with the prose account 
of the same facts drawn from it some four hundred years later.) One 
beautiful dirge and fragments of others are from the hand of “the sweet 
singer of Israel” himself. But the priests who made the final collection 
of the national literature were only solicitous to preserve what con- 
cerned their religion or the lives of the heroes who advanced it. Fortu- 
nately, certain snatches of song escaped their notice or were read as 
history. Some of these are now known to be fragments of Babylonian 
myths current in Canaan. Their originals are now in our hands. 
Notable features of all this folk-lore are the excellent handling of 
rhythms and the frequent use of Apostrophe. From our present knowl- 
edge of Assyrian poetry, we are compelled to infer that to its influence 
is due the early perfection of these poetical forms in Hebrew. 

The discovery that several collections compiled by different editors 
were assembled in the canonical Book of Proverbs, was interesting and 
easy to verify; but it was of slight importance compared with that of 
the composite nature of the Books of the Prophets. As we can now 
read them in their true succession and (except for occasional lacunae) 
in their original integrity, they abundantly answer the questions, (1) : 
How and when was the highly spiritual religion on which Christianity 
is founded evolved from the gross materialism of the eighth century B.c., 
when the supreme end in life for the rich seemed to be pleasure and 
luxurious ease, and the means for enjoying it were wrung from the 
misery of the poor? And (2): By what magic could so sophisticated and 
degenerate a people have been restored to the personal purity and 


Xxxii THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


unselfish fraternity inculcated by Moses? This was to be the self- 
appointed though none-the-less-inspired work of the Prophets of the 
Golden Age. 


THE GOLDEN AGE opened with the irruption of Poetry into the 
alien fields of economics and social ethics. A hundred years had elapsed 
since J and Elijah the Tishbite* had shown the necessity for reform and 
the essence of true religion. Not by magnificent ritual and impressive 
holocausts copied from the forms of pagan worship, but by spiritual 
communion with God, and obedience to the “still, small voice” of con- 
science was Israel to regain her great heritage,—a heritage not to be 
measured in territory, but by the spread of her early moral and religious 
standards. It does not appear that J’s teachings had been heeded by 
his contemporaries; the proverbs of the Wise Men seemed more ser- 
viceable in the daily struggle to get on in the world. They were destined, 
however, to inspire and direct the efforts of the great reformers known 
as the “Literary Prophets of Israel”. These were all admirable poets 
though of different degrees of merit. Each approached the common 
problem from a different point of view according to the conditions of 
his day; but the pioneers whom after ages have set highest on the roll, 
—Amos, a landed proprietor of Tekoa; Isaiah of Jerusalem, companion 
and counsellor of kings; Micah the Morasthite, spokesman for the 
peasantry of the Judean lowlands,—had the least immediate influence. 
_ Possessed of every poetic gift, all three mistook the office of poetry and 
alienated those whose selfish and short-sighted policies and habits they 
hoped to reform. Poetry has always swayed the multitude, but only 
when it delights the senses or inspires the down-trodden and despondent 
with hopes of better conditions. These poets employed all the devices 
of rhetoric, every variety of rhythm, and a wealth of imagery drawn 
from the beauties and forces of nature to intensify the withering irony 
with which they laid bare existing evils, and to picture the terrible 
vengeance of their offended God. For Amos unflinchingly proclaims 
the inflexible justice of Yahweh; Micah foretells the speedy fall of the 
aristocrats to the level of those they now oppress; and though Isaiah 
shows a touch of tenderness in one early poem and, in almost his last 
utterance, a gleam of hope for his own little band of disciples, these 
stand alone against the torrent of denunciation he pours upon the 
capitalists who “despoil the wretched . . . and lay field to field 
till there is no more room”; upon the thoughtless and frivolous women 
who flaunt their jewels, “leering as they go”; upon the dissolute gilded 
youth, only “valiant in drinking wine”. But the condemnation was too 
wholesale to be accepted, the picture too lifelike to be recognized. “For 
what” (we can fancy them saying) “have we done? We go to the 
temple-services, we pay our tithes, we give alms to beggars, we obey 
the laws, we reverence the priests”. Nay, but the priests are like the 
people; they are faithless to their duty, lax in morals; they “reel with 
wine”. The judges despoil the widow and the orphan; they “stagger 
while giving false judgment”. Therefore Isaiah exclaims, “Thus saith 
Yahweh: Because this people draw near and honor me with their 
lips, but their heart is far from me,—who say to the prophets: ‘Speak 
to us smooth things, . . . trouble us no more with Israel’s Holy 
One!’ therefore I will turn my hand against them and will smelt out in 
the furnace their dross. Verily, never can this your iniquity be can- 
celed till ye die”. 

Yet Isaiah is still as world-famed for tenderness and hopefulness as 

+ See Story of Elijah in the ‘‘Notable Deeds of Israel’s Heroes’? by E. 


INTRODUCTION XXxill 


for stern invective, for prophecies of future glory for the nation as for 
those of its immediate and permanent dissolution. Exact criticism has 
removed these discrepancies; first, by showing the wide differences in 
style and historical background between chapters i—xxxvi and xl—Ilxvi, 
which verdict has long been accepted and the two parts ascribed re- 
spectively to Isaiah I. and Isaiah II.,—authors separated in date by 
over two hundred years. But secondly, while the stern granduer of 
Isaiah I. never appears in the later division, the gracious charm and 
glowing pictures of peace and prosperity for a redeemed people, char- 
acteristic of Isaiah II., stand in all versions side by side with the fierce 
denunciations of Isaiah I. Clearer knowledge of contemporary history 
through the discovery of Assyrian records, and of linguistics through 
the advance of philology, now prove that both parts are composite; 
and that fragments of poems by anonymous authors belonging to the 
joyous, optimistic Persian period have been fathered upon Isaiah to - 
relieve his otherwise unbroken pessimism. For the same _ incontro- 
vertible reasons, the “Book of Amos” loses its editorial introduction 
(ch. i, 1-2), its conclusion (ch. ix, 5-6, 8b-15) and a few other lines; 
while at least half of the “Book of Micah” must be ascribed to an 
author of the Persian period now called Micah II., and even the 
three noble poems of Micah I., the youthful contemporary of Isaiah LI., 
are shown to have been meddled with. Such meddling not only blem- 
ished the style and falsified the opinions of all the major poets of the 
Golden Age, but introduced obstacles to our comprehension of their 
respective contributions to the slow development of spiritual religion. 
These obstacles have now for the most part been removed. 

Stripped of all incongruities, the writings of the Judxan poets of 
the eighth century B.c. reveal their authors’ uncompromising creed and 
its limitations. They laid stress upon the righeousness of Yahweh, 
which demanded fair-dealing of man with man and obedience to the 
primal laws of well-ordered social living; they also proclaimed Yahweh 
as the Holy One who required personal purity of His people; but they 
made no further attempt to comprehend the nature and purposes of 
their God. They had advanced so far as to believe Him supreme over 
all other gods whatever, while yet recognizing the gods of other nations 
as legitimate but inferior rulers; but they drew the deduction that if 
the Chosen People should cling to inferior gods tolerant of every soul- 
destroying vice, Yahweh would wipe them off the face of the earth and 
raise up others to reveal His will; for He was a Jealous God and a God 
of Vengeance; the instruments of His vengeance, the armies of Assyria, 
were even now at the doors. In their passionate haste to reinstate their 
brethren in His favor, these prophets forgot the teachings of their own 
philosopher of the preceding century, the stress he had laid upon 
Yahweh’s mercy, His long-suffering and faithfulness to His pledged word. 
They strove to drive men into just-dealing and high morality through 
the agency of fear. Therefore the reform that Isaiah accomplished was 
neither lasting nor fundamental. The people multiplied their sacrifices 
and petitions, but their hearts remained unchanged. 

But in the Northern Kingdom, in the mountain-land of Ephraim, 
had appeared a poet of far different temperament to that of the Judeeans, 
—Hosea, the son of Beeri. His career had begun a few years before 
Isaiah’s, and it lasted till the time of Micah. Ignorant of the ways of 
courts and the methods of the schools, he had learned from personal 
experience the compelling power of a great love to forgive, seek out and 
cherish one who had grievously sinned against him. Possibly it was 
the daring venture of Amos into the stronghold of idolatry to inveigh 


XXXIV THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


against the vices of Israel (Am. vii, 10) that turned his attention to the 
degeneracy of his nation. ‘Therein he saw a striking likeness to his 
own experience; and, looking into his own heart and reasoning from 
“Man’s nothing-perfect to God’s all-complete” he pronounced authorita- 
tively in the name of Yahweh: My people are destroyed for lack of 
knowledge; . . . they have not known Yahweh”. Yet how should 
they know without a teacher? Priests and prophets were alike recreant 
to their duty, and barefacedly committing deliberate crimes. There- 
fore Hosea revives J’s teaching. With even fuller detail than Amos, but 
without his bitterness, he recounts the sins of Israel for which Yahweh 
must needs punish them; nay, the punishment is the fruit of their own 
misdoings; “they have sown the wind, they shall reap the whirlwind”. 
But, with outbursts of passionate pleading, he reviews the benefits 
they have received from Yahweh, His loving care of them in danger, 
the preventives and defenses He gave them against their personal weak- 
nesses in His laws. These laws Israel has rejected. “My people are bent 
upon backsliding; they call to the Most High for help, yet none at all 
will lift himself up”. But as the prophet had pardoned and brought 
home his erring wife, though shorn of all dignity and honor in the eyes 
of her neighbors, so he foresees salvation in the end for Israel, and a 
possibility of her regaining her spiritual heritage. “I will not return 
to destroy Ephraim, saith Yahweh, for I am God and not man, the 
Holy One in the midst of thee. I will not come in wrath”. 

No Hebrew poet, even among the post-exilic writers, has written 
with greater pathos and with more exquisitely appropriate and delicate 
figures than Hosea. But it remained for the great prose-writer of the 
next century, the author of Deuteronomy, to build upon that Knowledge 
of Yahweh’s love and fidelity inculecated by Hosea, and to devise the 
effectual means of reaching the hearts of the people. There was no 
time for Hosea’s teaching to produce results for Ephraim. As he laid 
down his pen, Tiglath Pileser was entering the Northern Kingdom, and 
her punishment had begun. 

The accession of Manasseh in the Southern Kingdom in 698 B.c., his 
disgraceful reign and his relentless persecution of the followers of 
Yahweh put an end to all attempts at reform. His excesses, however, 
roused his subjects to the reasonableness of their prophets’ strictures; 
and no sooner was his grandson Josiah established upon the throne than 
poets and prophets sprang up, even before the finding of the “Book of 
the Law”, who proclaimed Hosea’s gospel of the mercy and loving- 
kindness as well as the justice of Yahweh. First among them was 
Zephaniah, who extended the threats of Amos and Isaiah to all workers 
of wickedness in high places, but encouraged the righteous and the 
meek to expect salvation. The one fine poem of Zephaniah’s that has 
been preserved shows perfect unity of plan and handling, save for — 
two or three interpolated couplets and the final strophe, which were 
evidently added after the Captivity. 

Far different is the case of the “Book of Jeremiah” in which prose 
and poetry, genuine utterances of the prophet and late additions are 
closely interwoven. ‘Tradition asserts that it was written down at 
Jeremiah’s dictation by his secretary, Baruch; but there is no evidence 
to confirm the assertion. Baruch was not Jeremiah’s secretary, but his 
confidential friend and co-worker; and though from stress of circum- 
stances he once acted as his amanuensis, no part of the famous scroll 
he then wrote has been identified in the extant book. The latest verdict 
of scholars is that, like Socrates and Epictetus, and like the Greatest 


INTRODUCTION xxv 


of All Teachers, Jeremiah never wrote at all. His words bear the 
stamp of immediate, spontaneous utterance. Probably they were taken 
down, more or less verbatim, at different times and places by enthusiastic 
disciples, who passed their several booklets from hand to hand during 
his lifetime; but they were not brought together until the middle of 
the Persian period. These booklets are distinguishable by their head- 
ings; in spite of which clear indications of their proper order they 
were jumbled together without regard to date, and are also marred by 
the introduction into their text of marginal glosses and additions by 
various readers. Interspersed among the booklets are detailed accounts 
of Jeremiah’s personal experiences which seem to have been derived 
from a Biography. 

The greatest aid in revising and rearranging this important book 
is its translation into Greek as found in the Alexandrian Codex of the 
Septuagint. Thence we learn that the Hebrew text of “Jeremiah” was 
shorter in the third and second centuries B.c. than our present text by 
2,700 words, or one-eighth of its whole contents. We are thus enabled 
to state definitely not only how many lines have been added, but just 
where they were inserted, and to deduce from contemporary history 
the feelings that prompted their insertion. Their phraseology also 
shows their authors’ full acquaintance with Persian and Greek words 
and idioms that only crept into Hebrew long after Jeremiah’s day. 

THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY (586-538 B.C.) was an unexampled humili- 
ation. The nation founded on the principles of Truth, Justice and Fra- 
ternity between man and rman, and sworn allegiance to a Supreme Ruler 
of all the world, of whom there could be no similitude among created 
things, has betrayed its trust and is uprooted. On the acropolis of 
Jerusalem, Solomon’s Temple, which has symbolized for centuries to 
all the surrounding kingdoms the majesty, power and steadfastness of 
Yahweh, now lies in ruins. The King, Court, Priests and Notables of 
Judah are captives far in the East in the midst of the sordid and 
depraving conditions from which Abraham had turned away; the rest 
of the turbulent and rebellious leaders of the population have fled to 
Egypt, almost to the very spot from which Moses had delivered their 
fathers. Never again shall they be an independent nation. So their 
prophets have foretold, all of whose other prophets have been ful- 
filled. This too they must perforce believe. But their religion, the 
noblest yet seen in the world, remains; they are still the chosen people 
of a Holy God who will cleanse and heal every faithful heart, and bring 
back to Zion a chastened and grateful “remnant” to do Him loyal service, 
whatever that service may be. This is the hope inspiring the noblest 
minds among the Exiles, and this the Mission whose scope they will 
strive to foresee. And this it was that carried the Golden Age of their 
literature through and over the catastrophic downfall of the nation 
without lapse and to ever higher mountains of vision, as the subjected 
Israelites passed successively from the depressing but not unkindly 
rule of the Chaldwans to the sympathetic protection of the Persians and 
the colder fellowship in philosophic inquiry of the Greeks, until it 
reached the very threshold of the Christian Era. The first stage, char- 
acterized by much beauty, tenderness and pathos, attained force and 
grandeur. In the second, Hebrew Lyrism will voice every emotion of 
the heart,—towards men, towards God, and towards His handiwork; 
and Hebrew Philosophy, analyzing the bases of morality, the office of 
suffering, the possibility of personal communion with God, and the 
mission of Israel to the world at large, will rise to the Sublime. 


; ) bs eave te 
, Utd f ey e) ria sah 


a aE SD > 
7 frie oe 
ae) 





EXTANT WORKS IN HEBREW LITERATURE 
TO THE 
OPENING OF THE GOLDEN AGE, 850 z.c. 


THE DECALOGUE 
A FIRST COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 
A SECOND COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 
THE HISTORY OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, BY J. 





THE DECALOGUE 


THE TEN WORDS BROUGHT BY MOSES 
TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL 


I. TAM YAHWEH, THy Gop; thou shalt have no other gods before Me. 


II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness 
of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, 
or in the water under the earth. 


Ill. Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh, thy God, in vain. 
IV. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. 
V. Honor thy father and thy mother. 
VI. Thou shalt not kill. 
Vil. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
VIII. Thou shalt not steal. 
IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness. 


X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor any thing that 
is his. 


[Expositions of these laws, as applied to every circumstance in the life of a simple 
agricultural people, are to be found in Exodus, xx, 19—xxiii, 33, and in Leviticus, xvii- 
xxvi. The former group is known as the Book of the Covenant, and the latter as the Law 
of Holiness. The Law of Holiness is held to be the more ancient; but whether it came 
from the Mosaic age or not cannot be proved. The Book of the Covenant closes with the 
exhortation coupled with a promise, which forms the basis of the Book of Deuteronomy: 

“Behold, I send a messenger before thee to keep by the way, and to bring thee into 
the place which I have prepared. Take ye heed of him, and hearken unto his voice; 
provoke him not, for I will not pardon thy transgression, for My name is in him. But, if 
thou wilt indeed obey his voice and do all that I spcak, then will I be an enemy to thy 
enemies, and an adversary to thy adversaries. And ye shall serve Yahweh our God: and 
I will bless thy bread and thy water, and I will take sickness away from the midst of 
thee. None shall cast their young nor be barren in thy land: the number of thy days 
I will fulfil. And I will send a hornet before thee which shall drive out the Hivite and 
the Canaanite and the Hittite from before thee. By little and little I will drive them out 
before thee, until thou be increased and possess the land. And I will set thy bounds from 
the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistine, and from the wilderness unto the River 
(the Euphrates)’’.—Eb.] 


THE FIRST COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 
(Proverbs, x, 1-xv, c. 950 B.c.) 
THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON 
i 
A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the grief of his 
mother. 
li 
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivereth 
from death. 
iii 
Yahweh will not suffer the righteous to famish, but He thrusteth 
away the desire of the wicked. 


lv 
He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of 
the diligent. maketh rich. 
‘i 
A wise son gathereth in summer, but he that sleepeth in harvest 
causeth shame. 
vi , 
Blessings are upon the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the 
wicked concealeth violence. id 
Vii 
The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked 
shall rot. 
viii 
The wise in heart will receive commands, but a prating fool shall fall. 
ix 
He that walketh uprightly walketh surely, but he that perverteth his 
ways shall be known. 
x 
He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow, but a prating fool 
shall fall. 
xi 
The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but the mouth of the 
wicked covereth violence. yy 
xii 
Hatred covereth up strife, but love covereth all transgression. 
<2 
In the lips of him that hath discernment, wisdom is found; 
But a rod for the back of him that hath no understanding. 
XIV 
Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is an 
imminent ruin. 
4 


THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON 4) 


XV 
The rich man’s wealth is his strong city; the ruin of the poor is 
their poverty. 
Xvi 
F The labor of the righteous tendeth to life; the increase of the wicked, 
o sin. 
Xvil 
He is in the way of life that heedeth instruction, but he that 
forsaketh reproof, erreth. 
XVili 
He that hideth hatred is of lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander 
is a fool. 
xix 
In the multitude of words there lacketh not transgression, 
But he that restraineth his lips is wise. 


XxX 
The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver; the heart of the 
wicked is worth little. 
Xxi 
The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for want of 
understanding. 
XX1l 
The blessing of Yahweh, it maketh rich, and toil addeth nothing 
thereto. 
XXill 
It is as sport to a fool to do wickedness; so is wisdom to a man of 
discernment. 
XXiv 
The heart of the wicked, it shall come upon him; the desire of the 
righteous shall be granted. 
XXV 
When the whirlwind passeth, the wicked is no more, but the right- 
eous is a lasting foundation. 
XXvi 
As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard 
to them that send him. 
XXVli 
The fear of Yahweh prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked 
shall be shortened. ih 
XXVili 
The hope of the righteous shall be gladness, but the expectation of 
the wicked shall perish. 
boeb.4 
The way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the upright, but ruin to the 
workers of iniquity. 
ree 
The righteous shall never be removed, but the wicked shall not 
dwell in the land. \. 
2.@.0.@ 
The mouth of the righteous uttereth wisdom, but the froward tongue 
shall be cut off. A 
XXxii 
The lips of the righteous uttereth wisdom, but those of the wicked 
speak frowardness. 
| XXXiii 
A false balance is abomination to Yahweh, but a just weight is His 
delight. 


6 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


XXXIV 
When pride cometh, then cometh shame; but with the lowly is 
wisdom. 
XXXV 
The integrity of the upright shall guide them; 
But the perverseness of the faithless shall destroy them. 


XXXVi1 
Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth 
from death. 
XXXVIl 
The righteousness of the sincere shall direct his way, 
But the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. 


XXXVIil 
The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them; but they that 
deal treacherously shall be taken in their own. mischief. 


rO.0.dB 
When the wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the 
hope of iniquity perisheth. 
xl 


The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in 
his stead. 


xli 


With his mouth the impious man destroyeth his neighbor, but 
through knowledge shall the righteous be delivered. 


xlii 


When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth, oA when 
the wicked perish, there is joy. 
xliii 
By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but it is overthrown 
by the mouth of the wicked. Y 
xliv 


He that despiseth his neighbor is void of wisdom, but a man of 
discernment holdeth his peace. 
xlv 
He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets; 
But he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth a matter. 


xlvi 


Where no wise guidance is, a people falleth, but in the multitude of 
counsellors there is safety. 


xlvii 
He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it, but he that 
hateth suretiship is sure. 
xlviii 
A gracious woman obtaineth honor, and strong men obtain riches. 


xlix 


The merciful man doeth good to his own soul, but he that is cruel 
troubleth his own flesh. 


The wicked earneth deceitful wages, but he that soweth righteous- 
ness hath a sure reward. , 
i 


Steadfast righteousness tendeth to life, but he that pursueth evil 
doth it to his own death 


THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON 


~ 


lii 
They that are perverse in heart are an abomination to Yahweh; 
But such as are upright in their way are His delight. 
lili 
Though hand join in hand, the evil man shall not be unpunished; 
But the seed of the righteous shall escape. 


liv 
As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman without 
discretion. 
lv 


The desire of the righteous is only good, but the expectation of the 
wicked is wrath. 


lvi 
There is that scattereth, and increaseth yet mor 


e; 
And there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth 
only to want. 


aa 
The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that satisfieth abundantly 
shall be satisfied himself. 
lviil 
He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him; 
But blessing shall be upon the hand of him that selleth it 
lix 
He that diligently seeketh good, seeketh favor; but he that searcheth 
after mischief, it shall come upon him. 


lx 


He that trusteth in his riches shall fall; but the righteous shall 
flourish like the green leaf. 


lxi 


He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind; and the 
foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart. 


xii 
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that is wise win- 
neth souls. 
lxlil 
Behold, the righteous shall be requited in the earth; how much 
more the wicked and the sinner! 


lxiv 


Whoso loveth knowledge loveth pp ecucns but he that is brutish 
hateth reproof. 


Ixv 


A good man shall obtain favor from Yahweh, but a man of wicked 
devices will He condemn. 


lxvi 


A man shall not be established by wicknedness, but the root of the 
righteous shall never be moved. 


Ixvil 
A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband; but she that doth 
shamefully is as rottenness in his bones. 


Ixvili 
The thoughts of the righteous are just; but the counsels of the 
wicked are deceit. 


spe THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


lxix 
The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood, but the mouth 
of the righteous shall deliver them. 


lxx 
Overthrow the wicked and they are not; but the house of the right- 
eous shall stand. 
lxxi 


A man shall be commended according to his wisdom, but he that is 
of a perverse mind shall be despised. ; 


lxxii 
Better is he that is lightly esteemed and hath a servant, 
Than he that honoreth himself and lacketh bread. 


Ixxili 


A righteous man regardeth the life of His. beast; but the tender 
mercies of the wicked are cruel. 


xxiv 


He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread, 
But he that followeth after vain things is void of understanding. 


Ixxv 
The wicked desireth the prey of evil men, but the root of the right- 
eous yieldeth fruit. 
Ixxvi 


The transgression of the lips is a snare to the evil man; 
But the righteous shall come out of trouble. 


Ixxvii 


A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, 
And the doings of a man’s hands shall be rendered unto him. 
Ixxviii 
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that is wise 
hearkeneth unto counsel. 
Ixxix 
A fool’s vexation is presently known, but a prudent man concealeth 
shame. 
Ixxx 
He that uttereth truth uttereth righteousness; but a false witness, 
deceit. 
Ixxxi 
There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword, but the torgue 
of the wise is health. 


Ixxxli 
The lip of truth shall be established for ever; but a lying tongue is 
but for a moment. 
Ixxxili 
Deceit is in the mind of them that devise evil; but to the counsellors 
of peace belongeth joy. 
IXxxiv 
No mischief shall befall the righteous; but the wicked shall be filled 
with evil. 
|xxxv 
Lying lips are an abomination to Yahweh; but they that deal truly 
are His delight. 


THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON 9 


Ixxxvi 
A prudent man concealeth knowledge; but the heart of fools pro- 
claimeth foolishness. 
Ixxxvii 
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule; but the slothful shall be 
under tribute. 
IXxxvili 
Care in the heart of a man boweth it down, but a good word 
maketh it glad. 
Texxix 
The righteous is a guide to his neighbor; but the way of the wicked 
leadeth them astray. 
xe 


The slothful man shall not hunt the prey; but the precious sub- 
stance of men cometh to the diligent. 


xci 
In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof 
there is no death. 
xcil 
A wise son hearkeneth to his father’s instruction, but a scorner hear- 
eth not rebuke. 
XCiil 
A man shall eat good from the fruit of his mouth, but the desire of 
the faithless is violence. ~ 
XC1V 
He that guardeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth 
wide his lips shall be ruined. 
XCV 


The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the desire 
of the diligent shall be abundantly gratified. 


xcvi 
A righteous man hateth lying; but a wicked man behaveth vilely 
and shamefully. 
XCVil 
Righteousness guardeth him that is upright, but wickedness over- 
throweth the sinner. Se 
XCVviill 
There is that pretendeth himself rich and hath nothing; there is 
that voucheth himself poor, yet hath great wealth. 


xcix 
The ransom of a man’s life are his riches; but the poor heareth no 
threatening. 


Cc 
The light of the righteous rejoiceth; but the lamp of the wicked 
shall be put out. 
ci 
By pride cometh only contention; but with the well-advised is 
wisdom. # 
Cli 
Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth 
by toil shall have increase. 
cill 
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick; but desire fulfilled is a tree 
of life. 


10 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 
Civ 
-. Whoso despiseth the word shall suffer thereby; but he that feareth 
the law shall be rewarded. 
CV 
The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares 
of death. 
Cvi | 
Good understanding giveth favor; but the way of the treacherous is 
rugged. 7 
Cvii 
’ neuen prudent man worketh with forethought, but a fool unfoldeth 
6) e 
: CVili 
A wicked messenger falleth into evil; but a faithful ambassador is 
health. 
cix 
Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction; 
But he that regardeth reproof shall be honored. 


cx 
The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul; but it is an abomi- 
nation to fools to depart from evil. 


Cxi 
Walk with wise men, and thou shalt be wise; but the companion of 
fools shall smart for it. 
CXil 
Evil pursueth sinners; but the righteous shall be repaid with good. 


Cxiii 
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children; 
But the wealth of the sinner is Jaid up for the righteous. 


CXxiv 
Much food is in the tillage of the poor; but there is that is destroyed 
by reason of injustice. 
my OXy. 
He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him 
chasteneth him betimes. 
Cxvi 
The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his desire; but the belly 
of the wicked shall want. 
Cxvii 
Every wise woman buildeth her house; but the foolish plucketh it 
down with her own hands. 
CXV1li 
He that walketh in his uprightness feareth Yahweh; but he that is 
perverse in his ways despiseth Him. 


cxix 
In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride; but the lips of the 
wise shall preserve them. 
Cxx 
Where no oxen are, the crib is clean; but much increase is by the 
strength of an ox. 
CXxi 
A faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness uttereth lies. 


THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON 14 


CXXii 
A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not; but knowledge is easy 
unto him of discernment. 
CXXili 
Go into the presence of a foolish man, and thou shalt not perceive the 
lips of knowledge. 
CXXiV 


The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way; and the folly 
of fools is deceit. 


CXXV 
The foolish make a mock at guilt, but among the upright there is 
good will. 
CXXvi 
The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and with its joy no stranger 
can intermeddle. 
CXXVli 
The house of the wicked shall be overthrown, but the tent of 
the upright shall flourish. 
CXXVili 
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof 
are the ways of death ; 
Cxxix 
Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of mirth is 
heaviness. 
CXXX 
The dissembler in heart shall have his fill from his own ways, and 
a good man shall be satisfied from himself. 


CXXXxi 
The thoughtless believeth every word; but the prudent man looketh 
well to his going. 
CXXxii 
A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil; but the fool beareth 
himself insolently and is confident. 


CXXXlli 
He that is soon angry will act foolishly; and a man of wicked 
devices is hated. 
CXXXiV 
F The simple inherit folly; but the prudent are crowned with knowl- 
edge. 
CXXXV 
The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the 
righteous. . 
CXXXvVi 
The poor is hated even of his own neighbor, but the rich hath 
many friends. 
CXXXVii 
He that despiseth his pee sinneth; but he that hath pity ee 
the poor, happy is he. 
CXXXVili 
Shall they not go astray that devise evil? but mercy and ap 
shall be for them that devise good. 


CXXxix 
In all labor there is profit; but the talk of the lips tendeth only 
to penury. 


12 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


cxl 
P mite crown of the wise is their riches; but the folly of fools is only 
olly. 
, exli 
5 rae witness delivereth souls; but he that uttereth lies is full of 
eceit. 
exlii 
In the fear of Yahweh is strong confidence; and His children shall 
have a place of refuge. 
exliil 
The fear of Yahweh is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares 
of death. 
exliv 
In the multitude of people is the king’s glory; but in the want of 
people is the ruin of the prince. 


cxlv 
He that is slow to anger is of great understanding; but he that is 
hasty of spirit exalteth folly. 
cxlvi 
A tranquil heart is the life of the flesh; but envy is the rottenness 
of the bones. 
exlvii 
He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker; but he that 
hath mercy on the needy honoreth Him. 


exlviii 
The wicked is thrust down in his calamity; but the righteous hath 
a refuge in his death. 
exlix 
Wisdom resteth in the mind of him that hath discernment; but 
whatever is in the heart of fools is made known. 


cl 
Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people. 


cli 


The king’s favor is toward a servant that dealeth wisely; but his 
wrath shall strike him that dealeth shamefully. 


elii 
A soft answer turneth away wrath; but a grievous word stirreth up 
anger. 
cliii 
The tongue of the wise uttereth knowledge aright; but the mouth 
of fools poureth out folly. 
Cliv 
The eyes of Yahweh are in every place, keeping watch upon the 
evil and the good. 
clv 
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness therein is a 
wound to the spirit. 
clvi 
A fool despiseth his father’s correction; but he that regardeth re- © 
proof gaineth prudence. s 
elvii 
In the house of the righteous is much treasure; but in the revenues 
of the wicked is trouble. 


THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON 13 
elvili 
The lips of the wise dispense knowledge; but the mind of the foolish 
doth not so. 
clix 
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh; but the 
prayer of the upright is His delight. 


clx 


The way of the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh; but He loveth 
him that followeth after righteousness. 


clxi 
There is grievous correction for him that forsaketh the way; and he 
that hateth reproof shall die. 
clxii 
Sheol and destruction are before Yahweh; how much more then the 
hearts of the children of men! 
elxili 
A scorner loveth not to be reproved; he will not go unto the wise. 


clxiv 
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of 
heart the spirit is broken. 
clxv 
The heart of him that hath discernment seeketh knowledge; but the 
mouth of fools feedeth on folly. 


elxvi 
All the days of the afflicted are evil; but he that is of a cheerful 
heart hath a continual feast. 
celxvii 
Better is little with the fear of Yahweh, than great treasure and 
trouble therewith. 
elxvili 
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and 
hatred therewith. 
CIxix 
A wrathful man stirreth up contention; but he that is slow to 
anger appeaseth strife. 
clxx 
The way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns; but the path of 
the upright is as a highway. 
clxxi 
A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish man despiseth his 
mother. 
elxxii 
Folly is joy to him that is void of wisdom; but a man of discern- 
ment walketh in a straight path. 


clxxili 
For want of counsel purposes are frustrated; but in the multitude 
of counsellors they are established. 
clxxiv 
A man hath joy in the answer of his mouth; and a word in season, 
how good it is! 
ClXxvors 
The path of life goeth upward for the wise, that he may depart 
from Sheol beneath. 


14 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


clxxvi 
Yahweh will root up the house of the proud, but He will establish 
the border of the widow. 
elxxvil 
Evil devices are an abomination to Yahweh, but pleasant words 
are pure. 
clxxvili 
He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that 
hateth gifts shall live. 
clxxix 
The mind of the righteous studieth to answer; but the mouth of 


the wicked poureth out evil. 
Clxxx 


Yahweh is far from the wicked, but He heareth the prayer of the 


righteous. 
clxxxi 


The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart, and good tidings make 


the bones fat. 
clxxxii 


The ear that hearkeneth to the reproof of life shall abide among 
the wise. 
clxxxill 
He that refuseth correction despiseth his own soul; but he that 
hearkeneth to reproof getteth understanding. 


clxxxiv 


The FEAR of YAHWEH is the Teaching of WISDOM, 
And before HONOR goeth HUMILITY. 


THE SECOND COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 
(Proverbs, xvi, 1—xxii, 16) 
i 
The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of 
the tongue is from Yahweh. 
ii 
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but Yahweh 
weigheth the spirit. 
iii 
i pC thy works unto Yahweh, and thy Srouants shall be estab- 
ishe 
iv 
Yahweh hath made everything for its own end; yea, even the 
wicked for the day of evil. 
Vv 
Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh. 
My hand upon it! he shall not go unpunished. 


vi 
By mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear-of Yahweh 
men turn from evil. 
vii 
When a man’s ways please Yahweh, He maketh even his enemies | 
to be at peace with him. 


A SECOND COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 15 


Vill 
Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with in- 
justice. 
ix 
A man’s heart deviseth his way, but Yahweh directeth his steps. 
x 
A divine sentence is in the lips of the king; his mouth shall not 
transgress in judgment. 
vl 
A just balance and scales are Yahweh’s; all the weights of the bag 
are His work. .. 
xil 
To do wickedness is an abomination in kings, for the throne is 
established by righteousness. ay 
xiii 
Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him that 
speaketh right. ; 
Xiv 
The wrath of a king is as messengers of death, but a wise man 
will pacify it. 
XV 
In the light of the king’s countenance is life, and his favor is as a 
cloud of the latter rain. ; 
Xvi 
How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! yea, to get under- 
standing is rather to be chosen than silver. 
XVil 
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he that keepeth 
his way preserveth his soul. ra 
XVili 
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. 
xX1xX 
Better it is to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, than to divide the 
spoil with the proud. 
<e 
He that giveth heed unto the word shall find good; and whoso trust- 
eth in Yahweh, happy is he. ; 
xxi 
The wise in heart shall be called discerning, and the sweetness of 
the lips increaseth learning. x 
xxii 
Understanding is a wellspring of life to him that hath it; but the 
chastisement of fools is their folly. 
XXill 
The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to 
his lips. : 
XXiv 
Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health 
to the bones. 
XXV 
There is a way which seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof 
are the ways of death. ; 
XXvi 
The hunger of the laboring man laboreth for him, for his mouth 
craveth it of him. 


16 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


XXVil 
A worthless man deviseth mischief, and in his lips there is a burn- 
ing fire. 
XXVili 
A froward man soweth strife, and a whisperer separateth close 
friends. 
29.4.6 
A man of violence enticeth his neighbor, and leadeth him in a way 
that is not good. 
26.0% 
He that shutteth his eyes, it is to devise froward things; 
He that compresseth his lips bringeth evil to pass. 


pee 4 
The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of 
righteousness. 
2.0.6.8 4 
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; 
And he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. 


XXXII 
The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of 
Yahweh. 
XXxiv 
Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of 


feasting with strife. 
XXXV 


A servant that dealeth wisely shall have rule over a son that 


causeth shame, 
And shall have part in the inheritance among the brethren. 


XXXvi 
The refining-pot is for silver and the furnace for gold; but Yahweh 
trieth the hearts. 
XXXVIi 
An evil-doer giveth heed to wicked lips, and a liar giveth ear to a 
mischievous tongue. 
XXXVI1Il1 
Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker and he that is glad 
at calamity shall not be unpunished. 


20.0.8 b 4 
Children’s children are the crown of old men, and the glory of chil- 
dren are their fathers. 
Bp a! 
_Overbearing speech becometh not a churl, much less do lying lips a 
prince. 
xli 
A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it; wither- 
soever he turneth, he prospereth. 


xlii 
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that harpeth 
on a matter estrangeth a close friend. 


xliii 
A rebuke sinketh deeper into an understanding mind, than a hundred 
stripes into a fool. 


A SECOND COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 17 


xliv 
A rebellious man seeketh only evil; therefore a cruel messenger shall 
be sent against him. 
xlv 


Let a man meet a bear robbed of her whelps, rather than a fool in 
his folly. 


xlvi 
Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. 


xlvii 
The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore 
leave off contention before quarreling break out. 


xIvili 
He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the righteous, 
both alike are an abomination to Yahweh. 


xlix 


Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool ‘to buy wisdom, see- 
ing he hath no understanding? 


A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. 


li 
A man void of understanding is he that striketh hands, and becometh 
surety in the presence of his neighbor. 
lil 
He loveth transgression that loveth strife; he that raiscth high his 
gate seeketh destruction. re 
ili 
He that hath a froward heart findeth nothing good; and he that 
hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief. 
liv 
He that begetteth a fool doth it to his sorrow; the father of a fool 
hath no joy. 
lv 
A merry heart is a good medicine, but a broken spirit drieth up the 
bones. 
lvi 
A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of 
judgment. 
lvii 
Wisdom is present with him that hath understanding, but the eyes 
of a fool are in the ends of the earth. 


lvili 
A foolish son is a grief to his father, and a bitterness to her that 
bare him. ; 
lix ; 
To punish the righteous is not good, nor to strike the noble for their 
uprightness. ' 
x 
He that spareth his words hath knowledge, and he that hath a cool 
spirit is a man of discretion. ra 
xi 
Fven a fool when he holdeth his peace is accounted wise; he that 
shutteth his lips is held to be prudent. 


18 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 
Ixii 
He that separateth himself seeketh his own desire; and rageth against 
all sound wisdom. 
Ixiii 
A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may 
lay itself bare. 
lxiv 
When the wicked cometh, there cometh also contempt, and with 
ignominy cometh reproach. 
XV 
The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters; the wellspring of 
wisdom is as a flowing brook. 
Ixvi 
To respect the person of the wicked is not good, nor to turn aside 
the righteous in judgment. 
lxvii 
A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for stripes. 


Ixviil 
‘a fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his 
soul. 
bed bd 
The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, and they go down 
into the innermost parts of the belly. 


x 
He also that is slack in his work is brother to him that is a destroyer. 


Ixxi 
The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into 
it, and is safe. 
Ixxil 
The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and as a high wall in kis 
own imagination. 
Ixxill 
Before destruction, the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor 
goeth humility. 
Ixxiv 
He that giveth answer before he heareth, it is folly and confusion 
unto him. 
xxv 
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a broken spirit 
who can bear? 
Ixxvi 
The mind of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the 
wise seeketh knowledge. 
Ixxvii 
A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great 
men. 
Ixxvili 
He that first pleadeth his cause seemeth just; but his neighbor cometh 
and searcheth him out. 
Ibs 6, 8 
The lot causeth strife to cease, and parteth asunder the contentious. 


ix 


A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city; 
And such contentions are like the bars of a castle. 


A SECOND COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 19 


|xxxi 


A man’s belly shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth; with the 
increase of his lips shall he be satisfied. 


Ixxxii 
Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it 
shall eat the fruit thereof. 
IxXxxill 
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a great good, and obtaineth favor of 
Yahweh. 
IXXX1V 
The poor useth entreaties. but the rich answereth roughly. 


Ixxxv 


There are friends that one hath to his own hurt; but there is a 
friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 


Ixxxvi 
Better is the poor that walketh in integrity than he that is perverse 
in his lips and is a fool. 
IXxxxvil 
Also, that the soul be without knowledge is not good, and he that 
hasteth with his feet sinneth. 
IXxXXVill 
The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth 
against Yahweh. 
G6.5 9. 
Wealth addeth many friends; but as for the poor, his friend separat- 
eth himself from him. 
xe 
A false witness shall not go unpunished, and he that uttereth lies 
shall not escape. 
xcl 
Many will entreat the favor of the liberal man, and every man is a 
friend to him that giveth gifts. 
XCii 
All the brethren of the poor do hate him; how much more do his 
friends go far from him! He pursueth them with words, but they are 
one. 
3 x¢iii 
He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul; he that keepeth under- 
standing shall find good. 
XCIV 
A false witness shall not go unpunished; and he that breatheth forth 
lies shall perish. 
XCV 
Luxury is not seemly for a fool; much less, for a servant to have 
rule over princes. 
Xcvi 
It is discretion in a man to be slow to anger, and it is his glory to 
pass over a transgression. ‘. 
X¢Vii 
The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favor is as dew 
upon the grass. 
X¢evili 
A foolish son is the calamity of his father; and the contentions of a _ 
wife are a continual dropping. 


20 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


xcix 
House and riches are an inheritance from fathers; but a prudent 
wife is from Yahweh. 
C 
Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and the idle soul shall suffer 
hunger. 
Ci 
He that keepth the commandment keepeth his soul; but he that is 
careless of his ways shall die. 
Cil 
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to Yahweh, and his good 
deed will He repay him. Ne 
Ciii 
Chasten thy son, seeing there is hope, and set not thine heart upon 
his destruction. 
C1V 
A man of great wrath shall bear the penalty; for if thou interpose, 
thou wilt add thereto. 
CV 
Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise at 
the end of thy days. 
Cvl 
There are many devices in a man’s heart; but the counsel of Yahweh, 
that shall stand. . 
evil 
The lust of a man is his shame; and a poor man is better than a liar. 
Cvili 
The fear of Yahweh tendeth to life, and he that hath it shall abide 
satisfied; He shall not be visited with evil. 


cix 
The sluggard burieth his hand in the dish, and wi!l not so much 
as bring it back to his mouth. 
ox 
Smite a scorner, and the ignorant will become prudent; 
i Reprove one that hath discernment, and he will understand knowl- 
edge. 
Cx1 
He that despoileth his father and chaseth away his mother, is a son 
that causeth shame and bringeth reproach. 
exli 
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the 
words of knowledge. oe 
Cxili 
An ungodly witness mocketh at judgment; and the mouth of the 
wicked devoureth iniquity. 
CX1V 
; Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of 
ools. 
CXV 
Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; and whoso erreth thereby 
is not wise. 
Cxvi 
The terror of a king is as the roaring of a lion; he that provoketh 
him to anger forfeiteth his own life. 


A SECOND COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 21 


CXvil , 
_It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife; but every fool 
will be quarreling. 
CXV1il 
~The slothful will not plough when winter setteth in: theref 
shall beg in harvest, and have nothing. egret 


CX1xX 
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of under- 
standing will draw it out. 
exc 
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness; but a faithful 
man who ean find? 
Cxx! 
A just man that walketh in his integrity, blessed are his children 
after him. 
: CXXil 
A king that sitteth on the throne of judgment winnoweth away all 
evil with his eyes. 
Gxxii! 
Who can say: I have made my heart clean, I am pure from sin? 


; CXXiV 
Diverse weights and diverse measures, both alike are an abomination 
to Yahweh. - 
CXXV 
Even a child can be known by his doings, whether his work be pure 
and whether it be right. 
CXXvl 
The hearing ear and the seeing eye, Yahweh hath made even both 
of them. 
CXXVii 
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou 
shalt have bread in plenty. 
CXXVIiil 
It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his 
way, then he boasteth. 
CXX1xX 
There is gold and abundance of rubies; but the lips of knowledge 
are a precious jewel. 
Cx 
Take his garment that is surety for a stranger; and hold him in 
pledge that is surety for an alien woman. 


CXXXxl 
Bread of falsehood is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall 
be filled with gravel. 
CXXXil 
Every purpose is established by counsel; and by good advice carry 
thou on war. 
CXXXili 
Ne that goeth about as a tale-bearer revealeth secrets; 
Therefore meddle not with him that openeth wide his lips. 


CXXXIV 
Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out 
in the blackest darkness. 


22 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


CXXXV 
An estate may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof 
shall not be blessed. 
Crd 
Say not thou: I will recompense evil; wait for Yahweh, and He will 
save thee. 
CXXXVil 
Diverse weights are an abomination to Yahweh, and a false balance 
is not good. 
CXXXVili 
A man’s goings are of Yahweh; how then can man understand his 
way? 
j Cx X1X 
It is a snare to a man rashly to say: It is holy! and after vows to 
make inquiry. 
cxl 
A wise king winnoweth the wicked, and bringeth the threshing-wheel 
over them. 
exli 
The spirit of man is the lamp of Yahweh, searching all the innermost 
parts of him. 
exlil 
Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upholden by 
mercy. 
exliii 
The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men 
is the hoary head. | 
cxliv 
Sharp wounds cleanse away evil; so do stripes that reach the inward 


parts. 
cxlv 


The king’s heart is in the hand of Yahweh like the watercourses; 
He turneth it whither He will. 
cxlvi 
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; but Yahweh weigheth 
the hearts. 
cxlvil 
To do judgment and justice is more acceptable to Yahweh than 
sacrifice. 
exlviil 
_ A haughty look and a proud heart—even the tillage of the wicked 
is sin. 
exlix 
The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but he that 
is hasty hasteth only to want. 
Q 
The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vapor driven to and 
fro; they that seek them seek death. 
cli 
The violence of the wicked shall sweep them away, because they 
refuse to do justly. 
clii 
The way of the guilty is exceeding crooked; but as for the pure, his 
work is right. 
cliii 
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than in a large house 
with a contentious woman. 


A SECOND COLLECTION OF PROVERBS 23 


Cliv 
_. The soul of the wicked desireth evil; his neighbor findeth no favor 
in his eyes. 
clyv 
When the scorner is punished, the thoughtless is made wise; 
And when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge. 


elvi 


_ The righteous one considereth the house of tthe wicked, how the 
wicked are overthrown to their ruin. 


elvii 
Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry but 
shall not be heard. 
; elviii 
ace in secret pacifieth anger, and a present in the bosom strong 
wrath. 
clix 
It is joy to the righteous to do justly; but it is ruin to the workers 
of iniquity. 
clx 
The man that strayeth out of the way of discretion shall rest in the 
congregation of the dead. 
clxi 
_ He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine and 
oil shall not be rich. 
elxii 
The wicked is a ransom for the righteous, and the treacherous 
cometh in the stead of the upright. 


elxlii 
It is better to dwell in a desert land than with a contentious and 
fretful woman. 
clxiv 
There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but 
a foolish man swalloweth it up. 
clxv 
He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, pros- 
perity and honor. 
elxvi 
A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and bringeth down the 
stronghold wherein it trusteth. 
elxvii 
Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from 
troubles. 
elxviii 
The proud and haughty man, scorner is his name; he dealeth in the 
arrogance of pride. 
clxix 
The desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labor. 


clxx 
There is that coveteth greedily all the day long; but the righteous 
giveth and spareth not. 
elxxi 
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. How much more, 
when he bringeth it to atone for wickedness! 


24 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


; | elxxii 
A false witness shall perish; but the man that obeyeth shall speak 
unchallenged. 
el xxiii 
A wicked man hardenth his face; but as for the upright, he looketh 


well to his way. 
clxxiv 


There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against Yahweh. 


clxxv 
The horse is prepared against the day of battle; but victory is of 
Yahweh! 
elxxvi 
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving 
favor rather than silver and gold. 


clxxvil 
‘ The rich and the poor meet together; Yahweh is the maker of them 
all. 
clxxvili 
A prudent man seeth the evil and hideth himself; but the thoughtless 
pass on, and suffer. 
clxxix 
The reward of humility and the fear of Yahweh is riches and honor 
and life. 
pO xox 
Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward; he that guardeth 
his soul shall be far from them. 


elxxxi 
Train up a child in the way he should go, and, even when he is old, 
he will not depart from it. 
clxxxii 
; an rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the 
ender. 
clxxxili 
He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity; and the rod of his wrath 


shall fail. 
clxXxxiv 


He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his 
bread to the poor. 
CIXXXV 
Cast out the scorner, and contention will go out; yea, strife and 


ignominy will cease. 
clxxxvil 


He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king 


shall be his friend. 
clxxxvii 


The eyes of Yahweh preserve him that hath knowledge, but He over- 
throweth the words of the treacherous man. 
elxxxili 
The sluggard saith: There is a lion without; I shall be slain in the 


streets. 
clxxxix 


The mouth of strange women is a deep pit; he that is abhorred of 
Yahweh shall fall therein. 


APPENDIX TO SECOND COLLECTION 25 


CXC 


Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of cor- 
rection shall drive it far from him. 


cxci 


He that oppresseth the poor to increase his gain, and he that giveth 
to the rich, come only to want. 


A FATHER’S ADVICE TO HIS SON? 


Proverbs, xxiy 17-xxiii; xxiv, 1-22, 23-34. 


Incline thine ear and hear the words of the wise 
And apply thy heart unto my knowledge; 
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee. 
Let them be established altogether on thy lips. 
That thy trust may be in Yahweh 
I make them known unto thee this day, even to thee. 
Have not I written unto thee excellent things 
of counsel and knowledge, 
That I might make thee know the certainty 
of the words of truth, 
That thou mightest bring back words of truth 
to them that send thee? 


Rob not the weak because he is weak, neither crush the poor in the gate, 
For Yahweh will plead their cause, 
And despoil of life them that despoil them. 


Make no friendship with one given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man; 
Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. 


‘Be not thou of them that strike nee or of them that go surety for debts; 
If thou hast not wherewith to p 
Why should thy ped! be taken from under thee? 


Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. 


Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. 
He shall not stand before mean men. 


When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, 

Consider well him that is before thee, 
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. 
Be not desirous of his dainties, seeing they are deceitful meat. 


Weary not thyself to be rich; cease from thine own wisdom. 
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon it? It is gone. 
For riches surely make themselves wings, 

Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven. 


Eat thou not his bread that hath an evil eye 
Neither desire thou his dainties; 
For as one that reckoneth within himself, so is he. 
Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. 
The morsel thou hast eaten shalt thou cast up, and lose thy sweet words. 


Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise 
The wisdom of thy words. 


1 Written late in the seventh century s.c. and added by the editors of the Canon in 
the fifth or fourth century to the “Proverbs of Solomon.” 


26 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Remove not the ancient Jandmark; enter not the fields of the fatherless, 
For their Redeemer is strong; He shall plead their cause with thee. 


Apply thy heart to wisdom, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. 


Withhold not correction from the child; 
For if thou beat him with a rod, he will not die; 
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and wilt deliver his ‘soul from Sheol. 


My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart will be glad,—even mine: 
Yea, my reins will rejoice when thy lips speak right things. 


Let not thy heart envy sinners, but be in fear of Yahweh alway: 
For surely there is a reward, and thy hope shall not be cut off. 


Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thy heart in the way. 
Be not among wine-bibbers, among gluttonous eaters of flesh. 
For the drunken and the glutton shall come to poverty, 

And drowsiness shall clothe a man in rags. 


Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, 
And despise not thy mother when she is old. 


Buy truth and sell it not; yea, wisdom and instruction and discretion. 


The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, 
And he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. 
Let thy father and thy mother be glad; let her that bare thee rejoice. 


My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. 
For a harlot is a deep ditch, and an alien woman is a narrow pit. 
Yea, she lieth in wait as a robber, 

And increaseth the faithless among men. 


Who erieth: Woe! Woe! Alas! Who hath contentions? Who is raving? 
Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? 
They that tarry long at the wine, that go to seek mixed wine. 
Look not on the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color to the cup, 
When it glideth down smoothly. 


At last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 
Thine eyes shall behold strange things 
And thy heart shall utter froward things; 

Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea. 
Or as he that lieth on the top of a mast. 


They have struck me, and I felt it not, 
They have beaten me, and I knew it not, 
When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. 


Be not thou envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them; 
For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. 


Through wisdom is a house builded, 
And by understanding it is established. 
By knowledge are its halls filled with precious and pleasant riches. 


A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength; 
For by wise advice thou shalt make thy war, 
And in the multitude of counsellors is victory. 


Wisdom is unattainable for a fool; he openeth not his mouth in the gate. 
He that deviseth to do evil, men shall call a mischievous person. 


APPENDIX TO SECOND COLLECTION 27 


The thought of the foolish is sin; 
And the scorner is an abomination to men. 


If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small indeed. 


Deliver them that are being drawn to death; 
And those about to be slain, wilt thou not rescue? 


If thou sayest: Behold, we know not this, 

Doth not He that weigheth hearts consider it? 

And He that knoweth thy soul, doth not He know it? 

And shall not He render to every man according to his works? 


My son, eat thou honey, for it is good, 
And the honeycomb, which is sweet tc the taste. 
So know thou wisdom to be unto thy soul; 
If thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, 
And thy hope shall not be cut off. 


Lie not in wait, O wicked man, against the home of the just; 
Spoil not his resting-place. 

For a righteous man falleth seven times and riseth up again; 
But the wicked are overthrown by calamity. 


Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, 
Let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth; 
Lest Yahweh see it, and it displease Him, 
And He turneth away His wrath from him. 


Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, 
Neither be thou envious of the wicked; 
For their calamity shall rise suddenly, 
The lamp of the wicked shall be put out. 


My son, fear thou Yahweh and the king, 

And meddle not with them that are given to change; 
For their calamity shall rise suddenly; 

And who knoweth the destruction of their years? 


These also are Sayings of the Wise.* 


To have respect of persons in judgment is not good; 
He that saith unto the wicked: Thou art righteous, 
Peoples shall curse him, nations shall execrate him. 
But to them that justly decide shall be delight, 

And a good blessing shall come upon them. 


He kisseth the lips that give a right answer. 


Prepare thy work without, and make it ready for the field, 
And afterwards build thy house. 


Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause, 
And deceive not with thy lips; 
Say not I.will do so to him as he hath done unto me; 
I will render to the man according to his work. 


1 An appendix to an appendix, possibly edited by the same writer. 


28 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


THE FATE OF THE SLOTHFUL 
An Apologue. 


I went by the field of the slothful 

And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; 
And lo, it was all grown over with thistles; 
The face thereof was covered with nettles, 
And the stone wall thereof was broken down. 


Then I beheld and considered well; 
I saw and received instruction. 
Yet a little sleep and a little slumber, 
A little folding of the hands to sleep! 
So shall thy poverty come as a robber, and thy want 
As an armed man. 








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THE HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL TO THE 
MIDDLE OF THE NINTH CENTURY, B.C. 


By tHE Jupaic AuTHOR, J. 


CHAPTER I 
TO THE DEATH OF JACOB (ISRAEL) 


SECTION I.—From the Creation of Man to the Confounding of Language 
and the Consequent Separation of Nations. (Genesis ii, 4b-iv; vi, 
Oey, f-e1 Oe 42, 15D, 20-23 3)ix, 18-283 xi, 1-9.) 

Materials used by J. Myths preserved in early Semitic Epics in 
Babylonia, and probably current among the Canaanites before the 
time of Abraham. 


In the day that the God Yahweh made heaven and earth, no plant 
of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung 
up; for the God Yahweh had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth, 
and there was no man to till the ground. And the God Yahweh formed 
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath 
of life; and man became a living soul. 

And the God Yahweh planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there 
He put the man whom He had formed. And the God Yahweh caused to 
spring up out of the ground every tree pleasant to the sight and good 
for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil. And the God Yahweh commanded 
the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; 
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat, 
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

And the God Yahweh said: It is not good that the man should be 
alone; I will make him a helpmeet for him. And the God Yahweh 
formed from the ground every beast of the field and every fowl of the 
air, and brought it to the man to see what he would eall it; and what- 
ever the man called each living creature, that was its name. And the 
man gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every 
beast of the field, but for man there was not found a helpmeet for him. 

And the God Yahweh caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and 
he slept. And He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in place 
of it; and the God Yahweh made the rib which He had taken from man 
into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said: This 
is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 
woman, because she was taken out of man; therefore shall a man leave 
his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be 
one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they 
were not ashamed. 

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field that 
the God Yahweh had made. And he said unto the woman: Truly hath 


29 


30 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


God said, ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden? And the woman 
said unto the serpent: Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may 
eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden 
God hath said: Eat ye not of it nor touch it, lest ye die. And the 
serpent said unto the woman: Surely ye will not die; but God knoweth 
that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall 
be as gods, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the tree 
was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes and desirable 
to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also unto 
her husband with her and he ate. And the eyes of them both were 
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed together 
fig leaves and made themselves girdles. 

And they heard the voice of the God Yahweh, walking in the garden 
in the cool of the day; and the man and his wife hid themselves from 
the presence of the God Yahweh amongst the trees of the garden. And 
the God Yahweh called unto the man and said unto him: Where art 
thou? And he said: I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid 
because I was naked, and I hid myself. And He said: Who told thee 
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded 
thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said: The woman whom 
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And 
the God Yahweh said unto the woman: What is this that thou hast 
done? And the woman said: The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 
And the God Yahweh said unto the serpent: Because thou hast done 
this, 

Cursed be thou above all beasts and above all creatures of the field; 
Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat 
All thy life long. 
Enmity I put between thee and the woman, 
Between thy seed and seed of her. 
He shall bruise thee on the head, and thou shalt bite him in the heel. > 

Unto the woman He said: 

Very sore will I make thy travail-pains; in sorrow shalt thou bring 
forth sons; 
Yet toward thy husband shall be thy desire, and over thee shall he rule. 

And to Adam He said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of 
thy wife and hast eaten of the tree concerning which I commanded 
thee, saying: Eat not of it, 

Cursed is the ground because of thee; by toil shalt thou eat from it 
all the days of thy life. 


Thorns and thistles shall it bear, and thou shalt eat of the herb 
of the field. 
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return 
unto the ground, 
For from it wert thou taken; for dust thou art, 
And unto dust shalt thou return. 


And for Adam and his wife the God Yahweh made tunics of skins 
and clothed them. And the God Yahweh said: Behold, the man is 
become like one of us, to know good and evil. Therefore, that he should 
not put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and 
live for ever, the God Yahweh sent him forth from the garden of Eden 
to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; 
and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and the 
flame of a sword which turned every way to guard the way of the 
tree of life. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 3f 


And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and 
said: I have gotten a man-child from Yahweh. And again she bare his 
brother Abel. And Adam ealled his wife’s name Eve,’ because she was 
the mother of all living. 


And Abel became a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the 
ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of 
the fruit of the ground an offering to Yahweh; and Abel, he also brought 
of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof. And Yahweh had 
respect unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and his offering He 
had no respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 
And Yahweh said unto Cain: 


Why art thou wroth, and why is thy face fallen? 

If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? 
And if thou doest not well, lurketh not sin at the door? 
Unto thee is its desire, but thou shouldest rule over it. 


Then said Cain to Abel his brother: Let us go into the field. And when 
they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew 
him. Then said Yahweh unto Cain: Where is Abel, thy brother? 
And he said: I know not; am I my brother’s keeper? And He said: 
What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me 
from the ground. And now: 


Cursed art thou from the ground which hath opened wide her mouth 
To receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand. 
When thou shalt till the ground no more shall it 
Yield thee its strength. 
A wanderer and a fugitive shalt thou be in the earth. 


And Cain said unto Yahweh: My punishment is greater than I can bear. 
Behold Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground, 
and from Thy face shall I be hid. A wanderer and a fugitive shall I be 
in the earth; and it shall come to pass, whosoever findeth me shall slay 
me. And Yahweh said unto him: 


Therefore, if anyone slayeth Cain, sevenfold shall he be avenged. 


And Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, lest anyone finding him should 
kill him. And Cain went forth from the presence of Yahweh and dwelt 
in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 

(Then Cain knew his wife; and she conceived and bare Enoch; and 
he builded a city and he called the city after the name of his son, 
Enoch. And unto Enoch was born Irad and Irad begat Mehujael; and 
Mehujael begat Methusael; and Methusael begat Lamech. And Lamech 
begat a son; and he called his name Noah, saying: This one shall com- 
fort us for our work, and for the labor of our hands because of the 
ground which Yaliweh hath cursed. 

And Lamech took unto him two wives; the name of the one, Adah; 
and the name of the other, Zillah. And Adah bare Jabal; he was the 
father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle. And his brother’s 
name was Jubal; he was the father of all such as handle the harp and 
pipe. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, the father of all those 
who forge copper and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. 
And Lamech said unto his wives: 


1Eve, (Heb. Havvah, life). The verse is brought forward from Ch. iii, 20, where it is 
clearly misplaced, having no proper antecedent, 


32 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Adah and Zillah, hear my voice! 
Ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech! 
For I have slain a man for wounding me, 
And a young man for injuring me. 
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, 
Then Lamech seventy-and-sevenfold. ) 


And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son and ealled his 
name Seth, for she said: God hath appointed me yet another child. 
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name 
Enosh. : 

And Lamech! lived a hundred and eighty and two years, and begat 
a son. And he ealled his name Noah, saying: This same shall comfort 
us in our work, and in the toil of our hands, which cometh from the 
ground which Yahweh hath cursed. . . . And Noah was five hundred 
years old; and Noah had sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. 

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of 
the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God 
saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives 
of all whom they chose. Then said Yahweh: “My spirit shall not 
remain in man forever, seeing that he is only flesh; yet his days 
shall be an hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were upon 
the earth in those days and also afterwards, when the sons of God 
came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children unto 
them; these were the mighty men who of old were men of renown. 
And Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, 
and that every plan devised in his heart was only evil continually; 
and Yahweh repented that he had made man on the earth, and it 
grieved him to his heart. And Yahweh said: I will destroy man 
whom I have created from the face of the ground, both man and 
beast and creeping thing, and.the fowls of the air; for it repenteth 
Me that I have made them. 

But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh. . 

And Yahweh said unto Noah: Come thou and all thy house into 
the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation. 
Of every clean beast thou shalt take unto thee by sevens, the male 
and his female; and of beasts that are not clean by twos, the male and 
his mate. Of fowls also of the air by seven and seven, male and female, 
to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days 
and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; 
and every living thing that I have made will I destroy from off the face 
of the earth. 

And Noah did according to all that Yahweh commanded him. And 
it came to pass, after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were 
upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons and his wife, and his 
son’s wives with him, into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 
Of clean beasts and of beasts that were not clean, and of fowls, and 
of every thing that creepeth on the earth, there went in by pairs, male 
and female, unto Noah into the ark; and Yahweh shut him in. 

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. And 
the waters increased and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the 


1Ch. v, 1-27 gives a list of the sons of Adam in the line of Seth, parallel to the 
briefer one of the line of Cain in ch. iv, 17-22. It is unmistakably in the style of P, but 
must also be based on a very old tradition, as it brings in Methusaleh and Enoch, both 
of whom are mentioned by earlier authors than P. Each list makes special mention of a 
Lamech, the one as father of the inventors of arts and industries, and the other as the 
father of Noah: both are inserted here, the first in parenthesis. 


- THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 33 


earth. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was on 
the dry land, died; and every living thing was destroyed which was on 
the face of the ground, both men and cattle and creeping thing and 
fowl of the air. And they were destroyed from the earth and only 
Noah remained, and they that were with him in the ark. 

And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; 
the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped. 
And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the 
window of the ark which he had made, and he sent forth a raven 
which went to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the 
earth. Also he sent forth from him a dove, to see if the waters were 
abated from off the face of the ground, but the dove found no rest for 
the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the 
waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his 
hand and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he 
stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of 
the ark, and the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her 
mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters 
were abated from off the earth. And he waited yet other seven days 
and sent forth the dove; and she returned not unto him any more. 

Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked; and behold, 
the face of the ground was dry. And Noah builded an altar unto Yahweh, 
and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and he offered 
burnt offerings on the altar. And Yahweh smelled a sweet savor; and 
Yahweh said in His heart: I will never apain curse the ground for 
man’s sake, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. 
Neither will I ever again smite every living thing as I have done. 
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, 
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. 

Now the sons of Noah that went forth out of the ark were Shem 
and Ham and Japheth; (and Ham was the father of Canaan). These 
are the three sons of Noah, and unto them were sons born after the 
flood, and of them was the whole earth overspread. And Noah began 
to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. And he drank of 
the wine and was drunken; and he was uncovered in his tent. And 
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told 
his brethren without. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and 
laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the 
nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they 
saw not their father’s nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and 
knew what his younger son had done unto him; and he said: 


Cursed be Canaan! Servant of servants let him be to his brethren. 

Blessed of Yahweh be the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be 
subject unto him. 

Japheth! God shall enlarge him; he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; 

And it shall be that Canaan shall be servant also to him. 


Now the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And 
it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain 
in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to 
another: Come, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And 
they had brick for stone and bitumen had they for mortar. And they 
said: Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its summit in the 
heavens; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad over 
the face of the whole earth. And Yahweh came down to see the city 


34 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and the tower which the children of men had built. And Yahweh said: 
Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, and this they 
begin to do; and now nothing will be impossible for them which they 
may plan to do. Come, let us go down and there confound their language, 
that they may not understand one another’s speech. So Yahweh scattered 
them abroad from thence over the face of the whole earth; and they 
ceased to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel (Gate 
of God); because Yahweh did there confound the language of all the 
earth, and thence did Yahweh scatter them abroad upon the face of 
all the earth. 


SecTion IJ.—The Origin of the B’ne Israel, and their progenitor, 
Abram. 


Materials: The Cherished Traditions of his Descendants. (Gen. xi, 
27-Xil, 183. xvi, 1b-14; xXvill-xix; xxiv-xxv, 6 


Now these are the generations of Terah.t. Terah begat Abram, 
Nahor and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died in the pres- 
ence of his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chal- 
dees. And Abram and Nahor took them wives; the name of Abram’s 
wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of 
Haran the father of Milcah and of Iscah. And Sarai was barren; she 
had no child. : 

Now Yahweh had said unto Abram: Get thee out of thy country 
and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house unto a land that I 
will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation; and I will bless 
thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I 
will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and 
in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram went, 
as Yahweh had said unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram 
passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the terebinth 
of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And Yahweh 
appeared unto Abram, and said: Unto thy seed will I give this land. 
And he builded there an altar unto Yahweh who had appeared unto 
him. And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of 
Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the 
east; and he builded there an altar unto Yahweh, and called on the name 
of Yahweh. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. 

Now there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into 
Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was sore in the land. And it 
came to pass, when Abram was about to enter Egypt, that he said 
unto Sarai, his wife: Behold, now, I know that thou art a woman fair 
to look upon; and it will come to pass that when the Egyptians shall 
see thee, that they will say: This is his wife; and they will kill me, 
but thee they will keep alive. Say, I pray thee, that thou art my sister; 
that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my life shall be spared 
because of thee. 

And it came to pass when Abram was come into Egypt, that the 
Egyptians beheld the woman, that she was very fair. And Pharaoh’s 


1 According to P, who here inserts a genealogical table (ch. xi, 10-26) Terah was in 
the ninth generation from Shem in the line of Arphaxad. What is more important, Haran, 
his youngest son, is said to have died in Ur before the family removed to Haran in Aram, 
It corroborates another tradition of Abraham’s birth and upbringing in the great metropolis 
and trading mart of Babylonia. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 35 


princes saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken 
into Pharaoh’s house. And he treated Abram well for her sake; and 
he had sheep and oxen and he-asses, and man-servants and maid-servants 
and she-asses and camels. 

And Yahweh plagued Pharaoh and all his house with great plagues 
because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said: 
What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell 
me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou: She is my sister, so 
that I took her to be my wife? Now, therefore, behold thy wife. Take 
her and go. And Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him, and they 
sent him away and his wife, and all that he had. 

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he 
had, and Lot with him, into the south. And Abram was very rich in 
cattle, in silver and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the 
south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the 
beginning, between Bethel and Ai; unto the place of the altar which 
he had made there at first; and there Abram called on the name of 
Yahweh. And Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds 
and tents. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s 
cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle. (And the Canaanite and the 
Perizzite dwelled then in the land.) And Abram said unto Lot: Let 
there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my 
herdmen and thy herdmen, for we are brethren. Is not the whole land 
before thee? If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the 
right; or if thou take the right hand then I will go to the left. And 
Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was 
well watered everywhere (before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomor- 
rah) like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest 
unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot 
journeyed east, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Now the men of 
Sodom were wicked, and sinners against Yahweh exceedingly. 

And Yahweh said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from 
him: Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art 
northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land 
which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever. And 
I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that, if a man can 
number the dust of the earth, thy seed also shall be numbered. Arise, 
walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for 
I will give it thee. Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt 
by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built there an altar 
to Yahweh. 

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name 
was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram: Behold, now, Yahweh hath 
restrained me from bearing; I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may 
be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the 
voice of Sarai. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And 
when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in 
her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram: My wrong be upon thee. I 
have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had 
conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and 
thee. But Abram said unto Sarai: Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; 
do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, 
she fled from her face. 

And the messenger of Yahweh found her by a spring of water in 
the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And he said: Hagar, 


36 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Sarai’s handmaid, whence comest thou? And she said: I flee from 
the face of my mistress, Sarai. And the messenger of Yahweh said 
unto her: Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. 
And the messenger of Yahweh said unto her: I will greatly multiply 
thy seed, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the mes- 
senger of Yahweh said unto her: Behold, thou art with child and shalt 
bear a son. And thou shalt call his name Ishmael (God heareth), for 
Yahweh hath heard of thy affliction. And he shall be an untamed man, 
his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him; and 
he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. And she called the 
name of Yahweh who spake unto her: Thou art a God that seest; for 
she said: Even here have I looked upon Him who seeth me? Where- 
fore the well was called Beer-la-hai-roi (Well of the Living One Who 
seeth me); behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bare 
Abram a son, and he called his name, Ishmael. And Yahweh appeared 
unto him [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre; and he sat in the tent 
door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked, 
and lo, three men standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran 
to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth, and 
said: My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, 
I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water be fetched, I pray, 
and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will fetch 
you a morsel of bread that ye may refresh yourselves; afterwards ye 
shall pass on, as ye have visited your servant. And they said: So do 
as thou hast said. 

‘Then Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said: Make 
ready quickly three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes. 
And Abraham ran unto the herd and fetched a calf, tender and good, 
and gave it unto the servant; and he hasted to dress it. And he took 
butter and milk and the calf which he had dressed and set it before - 
them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. And 
they said unto him: Where is Sarah, thy wife? And he said: Behold, 
in the tent. And he said: I will certainly return to thee when the 
season cometh round, and lo, Sarah shall have a son. And Sarah heard 
in the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah 
were old, well-stricken in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after 
the manner of women. And Sarah laughed within herself, saying: 
After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? 
And Yahweh said unto Abraham: Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, 
Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard 
for Yahweh? At the set time will I return unto thee when the season 
cometh round, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied, saying: 
I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said: Nay, but thou didst 
laugh. 

And the men rose up from there and looked towards Sodom; and 
Abraham went with them to bring them on their way. And Yahweh 
said: Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do, seeing that Abraham 
shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the 
earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command 
his children and his household after him, that they may keep the 
way of Yahweh to do righteousness and justice, that Yahweh may 
bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him. And Yahweh 
said: Verily, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great; their sin is 


1From this point the names of the Patriarch and his wife are changed to aa 
and Sarah. The occasion for the change is given in ch. xvii, A. V. inserted Dy ce 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 37 


very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done 
altogether according to the cry of it which is come to Me, if not, I 
will know. And the men turned thence and went toward Sodom; but 
Abraham stood yet before Yahweh. 

And Abraham drew near, and said: Wilt Thou consume the right- 
eous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within 
the city, wilt Thou consume and not spare the place for: the fifty 
righteous that are therein? That be far from Thee to do after this 
manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous 
should be as the wicked; that be far from Thee. Shall not the Judge 
of all the earth do right? 

And Yahweh said: If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the 
city, then I will spare all the place for their sake. 

And Abraham answered and said: Behold now, I have taken upon 
me to speak unto Yahweh, which am but dust and ashes; peradventure 
there shall lack five of the fifty righteous; wilt Thou destroy all the city 
for lack of five? And He said: I will not destroy it, if I find there 
forty and five. And he spake unto Him yet again, and said: Peradven- 
ture there shall be forty found there; and He said: I will not do it 
for the forty’s sake. And he said: O, let not Yahweh be angry, and 
I will speak; peradventure there shall thirty be found there? And 
He said: I will not do it if I find thirty there. And he said: Behold, 
I have taken upon me to speak unto Yahweh; peradventure there shall 
twenty be found there? And He said: I will not destroy it for the 
twenty’s sake. And he said: O, let not Yahweh be angry, and I will 
speak yet but this once; peradventure ten shall be found there. And 
He said: I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake. And Yahweh went 
his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham 
returned to his own place. 

And there came two messengers to Sodom at even, and Lot sat in 
the gate of Sodom. And Lot saw them and rose up to meet them; and 
he bowed himself with his face to the earth, and he said: Behold now, 
my lords, turn aside, I pray you, into your servant’s house and tarry 
all night and wash your feet; and ye shall rise up early and go on 
your way. And they said: Nay, but we will abide in the street all 
night. And he urged them greatly, and they turned in unto him and 
entered his house. And he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened 
bread, and they did eat. But, before they lay down, the men of the 
city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house around, both young 
and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called unto Lot, 
and said unto him: Where are the men which came in to thee this 
night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them. And Lot 
went out unto them to the door, and shut the door after him. And he 
said: I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have 
two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring 
them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only 
unto these men do nothing, forasmuch as they are come under the 
shadow of my roof. And they said: Stand back. And they said: This 
one came in to sojourn, and he will need be a judge; now will we 
deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed sore upon 
the man Lot, and drew near to break the door. But the men put forth 
their hand and brought Lof into the house to them, and shut to the 
door. And they smote the men that were at the door with blindness, 
both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. 
And the men said unto Lot: Hast thou any here besides? son-in-law, 


38 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and thy sons and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the city, 
bring out of this place; for we will destroy this place, for the cry of 
them is great before Yahweh, and Yahweh hath sent us to destroy it. 

And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law which married his 
daughters, and said: Up, get you out of this place, for Yahweh will 
destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in- 
law. And when the morning dawned, the messengers hastened Lot, say- 
ing: Rise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou 
perish in the punishment of the city. But he lingered; and the men laid 
hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand 
of his two daughters, Yahweh being merciful to him, and they brought 
him forth and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they 
had brought them forth outside, that He said: Escape for thy life; 
look not behind thee, and stay not in all the plain. Escape to the moun- 
tain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto him: Oh, not so, my 
Lord. Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou 
hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast showed unto me in saving 
my life. And I cannot escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me 
and I die. Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and. it is a little 
one. Oh, let me escape thither (is it not a little one?) and my soul 
Shall live. And he said unto him: See, I have accepted thee concerning 
this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast 
spoken. Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou 
be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar (little). 

The sun was risen upon the,earth when Lot came unto Zoar. Then 
Yahweh rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from 
Yahweh out of Heaven, and He overthrew those cities and all the plain 
and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the 
ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became 
a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place 
where he had stood before Yahweh; and he looked toward Sodom and 
Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld; and lo! 
the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace. 

And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain, and his 
two daughters with him, for he feared to dwell in Zoar; and he dwelt 
in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said under the 
younger: Our father is old, and there is not-a man in the earth to 
come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make 
our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve 
seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night, 
and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he knew not 
when she lay down nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the 
morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger: Behold, I lay 
yesternight with my father; let us make him drink wine this night also, 
and go thou in and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our 
father. And they made their father drink wine that night also; and 
the younger arose and lay with him; and he knew not when she lay 
down nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with 
child by their father. And the firstborn bare a son and called his 
name Moab; the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. And 
the younger, she also bare a son and called his name Ben-ammi; the 
same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day. 

And Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said; for Sarah conceived and 
bare Abraham a son in his old age. And he called the name of his 
son that Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And he planted a tamarisk tree in 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 39 


Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting 
God.” 


2 * % * * * * 


And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age; and Yahweh had 
blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his servant, the 
elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had: Put, I pray thee, 
thy hand under my thigh; for I will make thee swear by Yahweh, the 
God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou wilt not take a wife 
for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. 
But thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred, and take a wife 
for my son Isaac. And the servant said unto him: Peradventure the 
woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land. Must I needs 
bring thy son again unto the land which thou camest from? And 
Abraham said unto him: Beware that thou bring not my son thither 
again. Yahweh, the God of heaven, that took me from my father’s 
house and from the land of my nativity, and that spake unto me, say- 
ing: Unto thy seed will I give this land; He shall send His messenger 
before thee, and thou shalt take a wife for my son from thence. And 
if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from 
this my oath, but thou shalt not bring my son thither again. And the 
servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and 
sware unto him upon this matter. 

And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and 
departed, for all his master’s goods were in his hand. And he arose 
and went into Aram Naharaim, unto the city of Nahor. And he made 
the camels to kneel down without the city by the well of water at the 
time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water. And he 
said: O Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, I pray Thee, order Thou 
what shall befall me this day, and show kindness unto my master Abra- 
ham. Behold, I stand by the fountain of water, and the daughters of the 
men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now, let it come to pass 
that the damsel to whom I shall say: Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, 
that I may drink; and she shall say: Drink, and I will give thy camels 
drink also; let her be whom Thot: appointest for thy servant Isaac 
and thereby shall I know Thou hast showed kindness to my master. 

And it came to pass that he had not done speaking, when behold, 
Rebekah came out (who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the 
wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother), with her pitcher upon her shoulder. 
And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any 
man known her. And she went down to the fountain and filled her 
pitcher, and came up. And the servant ran to meet her, and said: 
Give me to drink, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher. And she 
said: Drink, my lord; and she hasted and let down her pitcher upon 
her hand, and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him 
drink, she said: I will draw for thy camels also until they have done 
drinking. And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough, 
and-ran again unto the well to draw, and drew for all his camels, 
while the man looked steadfastly on her, pondering, seeking to know 
whether Yahweh had made his journey prosperous or not. And it 

1The “Expulsion of Hagar", the doublet of the “Sojourn in Egypt” (set this time 
in Gerar of the Philistines), and the ‘Sacrifice of Isaac’’, are all apparently told only by 
E; but that other versions may also have been in J’s history and excised by JE in favor 
of E’s, is suggested by a passage in ch. xxii (vv. 14-18), evidently by J, which presupposes 


his own version of the tradition. 
2Chapter xxiii, containing the account of the death and burial of Sarah, is a late 


addition. 


40 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


came to pass, as the camels finished drinking, that the man took a ring 
of gold of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of the 
weight of ten shekels of gold, and said: Whose daughter art thou? 
tell me, I pray thee. Is there room in thy father’s house for us to 
lodge in? And she said unto him: I am the daughter of Bethuel, son 
of Milcah, whom she bare unto Nahor. She said moreover unto him: 
We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in. And 
the man bowed his head and worshipped Yahweh. And he said: 
Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who hath not 
relaxed his mercy and his truth toward my master. As for me, Yahweh 
hath led me in the way to the house of my master’s brethren. 

And the damsel ran and told her mother’s house of these words. 
And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban; and Laban ran to 
the man to the fountain outside. And seeing the ring and the bracelets 
upon his sister’s hands and hearing the words of Rebekah his sister, 
saying: Thus spake the man unto me, he came unto the man; and 
behold, he stood by the camels at the fountain. And he said: Come in, 
thou blessed of Yahweh, why standest thou without? for I have pre- 
pared the house, and room for the. camels. And the man came into 
the house, and he ungirded the camels and gave straw and provender for 
the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who 
were with him. And there was set meat before him to eat; but he said: 
I will not eat until I have told mine errand. And he said: Speak on. 
And he said: I am Abraham’s servant. And Yahweh hath blessed my 
master greatly, and he is become great; and He hath given him flocks 
and herds and silver and gold, and men-servants and maid-servants and 
camels and asses. And Sarah, my master’s wife, bare a son to my 
master when she was old, and unto him hath he given all that he hath. 
And my master made me swear, saying: Thou shalt not take a wife 
for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell, 
but thou shalt go to my father’s house and to my kindred and take 
a wife for my son. And I said unto my master: Peradventure the 
woman will not follow me. And he said unto me: Yahweh, before whom 
I walk, will send his messenger with thee and prosper thy way. And 
thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father’s 
house; then shalt thou be clear from my oath when thou comest to my 
kindred; and if they give her not to thee, then thou shalt be clear from 
my oath. And I came this day unto the fountain, and said: Yahweh, 
God of my master Abraham, if now it please Thee to prosper the way 
which I am taking in this matter; behold, I take my stand by the foun- 
tain of water. Now, may it be that the maiden who cometh forth to 
draw to whom I shall say: Give me, I pray thee, a little water from 
thy pitcher to drink; and she shall say: both drink thou, and also will 
I draw for thy camels; she shall be the woman whom Yahweh hath 
appointed for my master’s son. Scarcely had I finished speaking in 
my heart, when lo, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder, 
and she went down to the fountain and drew. And I said unto her: 
Let me drink, I pray thee. And she made haste and let down her pitcher 
from her shoulder, and said: Drink, and I will give thy camels drink 
also. So I drank, and she made the camels drink also. And I asked 
her, and said: Whose daughter art thou? And she said: The daughter 
of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bare unto him. And I put the 
ring upon her nose, and the bracelets upon her hands. And I bowed 
my head and worshipped Yahweh, and blessed Yahweh, the God of my 
master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master’s 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 44 


brother’s daughter for his son. And now, if so be that ye will deal kindly 
and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me: that I may 
turn to the right hand or to the left. 

Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said: From Yahweh the 
thing has come, we cannot speak to thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah 
is before thee; take her and go, and let her be the wife of thy master’s 
son, as Yahweh hath spoken. And it came to pass, that when Abraham’s 
servant heard their words, he bowed himself down to the earth unto 
Yahweh. And the servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of 
gold and raiment and gave them to Rebekah; he gave also to her 
brother and to her mother precious things. And they did eat and 
drink, he and the men that were with him, and tarried all night. And 
they rose up in the morning, and he said: Send me away to my master. 
And her brother and her mother said: Let the damsel abide with us a 
few days, at the least ten; after that she shall go. And he said unto 
them: Detain me not, since Yahweh hath prospered my way; send me 
away that I may go to my master. And they said: We will call the 
damsel and inquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah and said 
unto her: Wilt thou go with this man? and she said: I will go. And 
they sent away Rebekah, their sister, and her nurse and Abraham’s 
servant and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her: 
Be thou, our sister, the mother of myriads of thousands, and may thy 
seed possess the gates of those that hate them. And Rebekah arose 
and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels and followed the man. 
So the servant took Rebekah and went his way. 

And Isaac came from the way of Beer-lahai-roi, for he dwelt in the 
south country. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide. 
And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming. 
And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted 
from the camel; and she said unto the servant: What man is this 
that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant said: It is 
my master; and she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant 
made known to Isaac all the things that he had done. And Isaac brought 
her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and took Rebekah, and she became 
oth wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after his mother’s 

eath. 

Then Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah. And 
she bare him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak 
and Shuah. All these were the children of Keturah. And Abraham 
gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines 
that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from 
Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward into the east country. 


SEcTION IIIJ.—From the Birth of Esau and Jacob to the Death of Their 
Father Isaac. (Genesis xxv, 11b, 21-34; xxvi; 41-14, 16-17, 19-25; 
MeV IA eA ex XVi11 040) 310-16, 119." xxix, 1a,. 2-14, 34-35; xxx, 4,.5, 7, 
Peto se EXK.. 4,03, 017-198,) 21a; C6, cod, 21,200, o2-40j3 403-44, 
Aaa Reseed OOo ek ie es ARXIV, -b, 7, 11-42, 20-26, 

-31.) 
Materials: Traditions and folksongs of the Israelites. 
And Isaac dwelt by the well La-hai-roi. And Isaac entreated Yahweh 


for his wife, because she was barren; and Yahweh hearkened unto him, 
and Rebekah conceived. And the children struggled together within 


42 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


her, and she said: If it be so, why do I live? And she went to inquire 
of Yahweh; and Yahweh said unto her: 


Two nations are in thy womb, 

And two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels; 
And one people shall be stronger than the other, 

And the Elder shail serve the Younger. 


And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold there were 
twins in her womb. And the first came forth red all over like a hairy 
garment. And they called him Esau. And after that came forth his 
brother, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. And the boys grew; 
and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the fields; but Jacob was a 
quiet man, dwelling in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau, because he did 
eat of his venison; and Rebekah loved Jacob. 

Now Jacob sod pottage; and Esau came in from the field, and he was 
faint; and Esau said to Jacob: Feed me, I pray thee, with that very red 
stuff, for I am faint (therefore was his name called Kdom). And 
Jacob said: Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said: Behold, 
I am at the point of death, and what profit shall the birthright be to me? 
And Jacob said: Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him; and 
he sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and 
pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his 
way. Thus did Esau despise his birthright. 

And there was a famine in. the land besides the first famine that 
was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech, king of 
the Philistines, unto Gerar. And Yahweh appeared unto him, and said: 
Go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of; 
sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee. For 
unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these lands, and I will estab- 
lish the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will multiply 
thy seed as the stars of heaven and will give unto thy seed all these 
lands. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, 
because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, any, com- 
mandments, my statutes and my laws. 

(And Isaac dwelt in Gerar; and the men of the place nana him of 
his wife. And he said: She is my sister; for he feared to say, My 
wife, lest the men of the place should kill him for Rebekah, because 
she was fair to look upon. And it came to pass when he had been 
there a long time, that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out 
at a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah, his 
wife. And Abimelech called Isaac, and said: Behold, of a surety she is 
thy wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto 
him: Because I said, Lest I die for her. And Abimelech said: What 
is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have 
lain with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guiltiness upon us. 
And Abimelech charged all the people, saying: He that toucheth this 
man or his wife shall surely be put to death.) 

And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hun- 
dredfold; and Yahweh blessed him. And the man waxed great and 
grew more and more, until he became very great; and he had possessions 
of flocks and possessions of herds and a great household. And the 
Philistines envied him. And Abimelech said unto Isaac: Go from us, 
for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed thence, and 
encamped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac’s servants 
digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. And 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 43 


the herdmen of Gerar strove with Isaac’s herdmen, saying: The water 
is ours. And he called the name of the well Esek (contention), because 
they contended with him. And they digged another well, and they 
strove for that also and he called the name of it Sitnah (hatred). And 
he removed from there and digged another well; and for that they 
strove not. And he ealled the name of it Rehoboth (room), and he said: 
For now Yahweh hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in 
the land. And he went up thence to Beersheba. 

Now it came to pass, that when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim 
so that he could not see, he called Esau, his eldest son, and said unto 
him: My son! and he said unto him: Behold, here am I. And he said: 
Behold now, I am old, and I know not the day of my death. Now there- 
fore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go 
out to the field and get me venison and make me savory meat, such as 
I love, and bring it to me that I may eat so that my soul may bless 
thee before I die. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his 
son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison and to bring it. 
And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying: Behold, I heard thy 
father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying: Bring me venison and 
make me savory meat, that I may eat and bless thee before Yahweh 
before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to 
that which I command thee. Go now to the flock and fetch me from 
it two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory meat for 
thy father, such as he loveth; and thou shalt bring it to thy father, 
that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And 
~ Jacob said to Rebekah his mother: Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy 
man, and I am a smooth man. My father peradventure will feel me, 
and I shall be in his eyes a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, 
and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him: Upon me be the 
curse, my son; only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. And he 
went and took and brought them to his mother; and his mother made 
savory meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took the goodly 
raiment of her eldest son Esau, which was with her in the house, and 
put it upon Jacob her younger son; and she put the skins of the kids 
of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck, and she 
gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the 
hand of her son Jacob. 

And he came unto his father, and said: My father! and he said: 
Here am I; who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father: I 
am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou badest me. 
Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison that thy soul may bless 
me. And Isaac said unto his son: How is it that thou hast found it so 
quickly, my son? And he said: Because Yahweh, thy God, brought 
it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob: Come near, I pray thee, that I may 
feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And 
Jacob went near unto Isaac his father, and he felt him, and said: The 
voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he 
discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s 
hands; so he blessed him. And he said: Art thou my very son Esau? 
And he said: Tam. And he said: Bring it near to me, and I will eat of 
my son’s venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it 
near to him, and he did eat; and he brought him wine, and he drank. 
And his father Isaac said unto him: Come near now, and kiss me, my 
son. And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of 
his raiment, and blessed him, and said: 


44 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that Yahweh 
hath blessed. 

Let the peoples serve thee! let nations bow down before thee. 

Let him that curseth thee be cursed, and him that blesseth 
thee be blessed. 


And it came to pass, as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, that 
Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting and said unto his father: 
Let my father arise and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may 
bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him: Who are thou? And he’ 
said: I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled violently 
and said: Who, then, is he that hunted game and brought it me before 
thou camest, and I ate of it all and blessed him? Verily, he shall be 
blessed. 

When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with a very 
great and exceeding bitter cry and said unto his father: Bless me, even 
me also, my father! and said unto his father: Bless me too, even me, my 
father! And he said: Thy brother came with guile and hath taken away 
my blessing. And he said: Is he not rightly named Jacob (Supplanter) ? 
for he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my birth- 
right, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said: 
Hast not thou reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and 
said unto Esau: Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all thy brethren 
have I given unto him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sus- 
tained him; and what shall I do for thee, my son? And Esau said unto 
his father: Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me also, even 
me, O my father! And Esau lifted up his voice and wept: And Isaac 
his father answered and said unto him: 


Behold, of the fat places of the earth shall be thy dwelling; 
And of the dew of heaven above. 

And by thy sword thou shalt live, and shalt serve thy brother. 
But it shall be, when thou shalt break loose, 

Thou shalt shake off his yoke from thy neck. 


And Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing wherewith his father 
had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart: Let the days of mourning 
for my father be at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob. And the 
words of Esau, her elder son, were told unto Rebekah; and she sent 
and called Jacob, her younger son, and said unto him: Behold, thy 
brother Esau is comforting himself, purposing to kill thee. Now 
therefore, my son, heaken to my words. Arise, flee thou unto Laban, 
my brother, and tarry with him a while, until thy brother’s fury turn 
away from thee, and he forget what thou hast done unto him; then will 
I send, and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be bereaved of you 
both in one day? 

And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran... . 
And behold, Yahweh stood near him and said: I am Yahweh, the God 
of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou 
liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as 
the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to 
the east, to the north and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall 
all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee 
and will keep thee withersoever thou goest; and I will bring thee back 
to this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done what I have 
promised thee. 

And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said: Surely, Yahweh is in 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 4D 


this place, and I knew it not. And he called the name of that place 
Beth-El (House of God); but the name of that city was Luz at the first. 
Then Jacob went on his way 


* * * * * * * 


and he looked, and behold, a well in the field, and lo, three flocks of 
sheep lying by it, for out of that well they watered the flocks; and a 
great stone was upon the mouth of the well. And thither were all the 
flocks gathered. And they rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and 
watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well’s mouth in 
its place. And Jacob said unto them: My brethren, whence be ye? 
And they said: Of Haran are we. And he said unto them: Know ye 
Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said 
unto them: Is he well? And they said: He is well, and behold, Rachel 
his daughter cometh with the sheep. And he said: Lo, it is yet high 
day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together; 
water ye the sheep and go and feed them. And they said: We may not, 
until all the flocks be gathered together, and they roll the stone from 
the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep. And while he yet spake 
with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them. 
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban his 
mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that 
Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered 
the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and 
lifted up his voice and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her 
father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told 
her father. And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of 
Jacob, his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and 
kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these 
things. And Laban said unto him: Surely thou art my bone and my 
flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month.t 


* * * * * ¥ * 


And when Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb; 
but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bare a son, and she 
called his name Reuben (See, a son!), for she said: Surely, Yahweh 
hath looked upon my affliction; now, therefore, my husband will love 
me. And she conceived again and bare a son, and said: Because Yahweh 
hath heard that I was hated, he hath given me this son also. And she 
called his name, Simeon (Hearing). And she conceived again and bare 
a son, and said: Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, 
because I have born him three sons. Therefore was his name called 
Levi (Joined). And she conceived again and bare a son, and she said: 
Now will I praise Yahweh. Therefore she called his name Judah 
(Praising), and ceased bearing. And Rachel gave Bilhah, her maid, 
to Jacob, and she said: That I also may have children by her. And 
she gave him Bilhah, her handmaid, to wife; and Jacob went in unto 
her, and Bilhah conceived and bare Jacob a son. And Bilhah, Rachel’s 
maid, conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. 

When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing, she took Zilpah, her 
maid, and gave her to Jacob to wife. And Zilpah, Leah’s maid, bare Jacob 
ason. And Leah said: By good fortune! and she called his name Gad 

1 Jacob’s various contracts with Laban, first for his wives and then for his flocks, and 


the details of the jealousies of his wives are given by E. Except for a few phrases, all 
the omissions in this section will be found in E’s Collection. 


46 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


(Fortune). And Zilpah, Leah’s maid, bare Jacob a second son. And 
Leah said: Happy am I, for women will call me happy. And she called 
his name Asher (Happy). 

And Reuben went in the days of wheat-harvest and found love-apples 
in the field, and he brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said 
unto Leah: Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s love-apples. But she said 
unto her: Is it a small matter that thou hast taken away my husband, 
and wouldest thou take away my son’s love-apples also? And Rachel 
said: Therefore shall he lie with thee tonight for thy son’s love-apples. 
And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to 
meet him, and said: Thou must come in unto me, for surely I have 
hired thee with my son’s love-apples. And he lay with her that night. 
And Leah said: Now will my husband dwell with me, because I have 
borne him six sons. 

And Rachel conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Joseph 
(Adding), and said: Yahweh will add to me another son. 

And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said 
unto Laban: Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place and 
to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have 
served thee, and let me go; for thou knowest my service which I have 
done thee. And Laban said unto him: If now I have found favor in 
thine eyes, stay; I have divined that Yahweh hath blessed me because 
of thee. And he said: Appoint thine own wage, and I will give it. And 
he answered him: Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy 
cattle have prospered with me; for little belonged to thee before I 
came, and now it is increased to a multitude; and Yahweh hath blessed 
thee since my coming. And now, when shall I provide for my own 
house also? 

Then said he: What shall I give thee? And Jacob said: Thou 
shalt not give me anything; if thou wilt do for me this thing, I will 
again keep thy flock. I will pass through all thy flock to-day, removing 
thence every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among 
the lambs and the speckled and spotted among the goats, and this shall 
be my hire. So shall my uprightness answer for me in future, when thou 
comest to consider my wages; every one that is not speckled and spotted 
among the goats and black among the sheep, will have been stolen 
by me. 

And Laban said: behold, let it be according to thy word. And he 
removed that day the he-goats that were striped and spotted, and all the 
she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, 
and all the black among the sheep, and gave them into the hands of 
his sons. And he put three days’ journeys between himself and Jacob; 
and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flock. 

Then Jacob took him rods of fresh poplar and of the almond and 
the plane-tree, and peeled white streaks in them and made the white 
on the rods appear; and he set the rods which he had peeled before 
the flocks in the gutters [watering-troughs] where the flocks came to 
drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the 
flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, 
speckled and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs . . . and put 
all the black in Laban’s flock; and he set his own flock apart, and did 
not put them near Laban’s cattle. And when the stronger conceived, 
Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that 
they might conceive among the rods; but when the cattle were feeble, 
he put them not in. So the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger, 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL AT 


Jacob’s. And the man increased exceedingly in wealth and had much 
cattle, and maid-servants and men-servants, and camels and asses. 

Then he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying: Jacob hath taken 
away all that was our father’s, and from that which was our father’s 
hath he gotten all this wealth. And Yahweh said unto Jacob: Return 
unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee. 
Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels; and he 
drove away all his cattle. Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep. And 
Rachel stole the teraphim (household gods) which were her father’s 
So he fled with all that he had; and set his face toward the mount of 
Gilead. Then Laban took his kinsmen with him and pursued after him 
seven days’ journey, and overtook him in the mountain. Now Jacob 
had pitched his tent in the mount; and Laban with his kinsmen also 
pitched in Mount Gilead. And Laban said unto Jacob: Why didst thou 
flee secretly and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I 
might have sent thee away with mirth and with songs, with tabret 
and with harp? And now, if thou wouldst needs be gone, because thou 
didst long sorely for thy father’s house, why hast thou stolen my gods? 
And Jacob said to him: With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let 
him not live; seek out for thyself whatever of thine is with me, and 
take it (for Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them). So 
Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tents of 
the two maid-servants; but he found them not. Then went he out of 
Leah’s tents, and entered into Rachel’s. Now Rachel had taken the 
teraphim and put them in the camel’s saddle, and was sitting upon 
them. And Laban searched all the tent buf found them not. And she 
said to her father: Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise in thy 
presence, for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but 
found not the teraphim. 

Then Jacob was wroth and chode with Laban; and Jacob answered 
and said to Laban: What is my trespass, what my sin, that thou hast 
so hotly pursued after me? Now thou hast explored through all my 
household goods, what hast thou found of all the furnishings of thy 
house? Set it here before my kinsmen and yours, that they judge 
betwixt us two. These twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes 
and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock 
have I not eaten. That which was torn of wild beasts I brought not to 
thee; I myself bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require if, 
whether stolen by day or by night. Thus I was; by day the drought 
consumed me and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from mine eyes. 

Then answered Laban and said: Come, let us make a covenant be- 
tween us, I and thou, and let it be a witness between me and thee. Then 
Jacob said unto his people: Gather stones. And they took stones and 
made a heap; and they did eat there upon the heap. And Laban said: 
This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. And Laban 
called it Jegar-sahadutha (Heap of Witness, Aram.) but Jacob called 
it Galeed (Heap of Witness, Heb.) and Mispah (Watchtower); for he 
said: May Yahweh watch between me and thee, when we are absent 
one from another. And Laban said to Jacob: Behold this heap (and 
behold this pillar), which I have set up between me and thee. This 
heap be witness that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou 
shalt not pass over this heap unto me for harm. The God of Abraham 
and the God of Nahor, the God of our fathers judge between us. 

Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the 
land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying: 


48 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob saith thus: 
I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now. And I have 
oxen and asses and men-servants and women-servants; and I have sent 
to tell my lord, that I may find grace in his sight. And the messengers 
returned to Jacob, saying: We came to thy brother Esau, and he also 
is coming to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob 
was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were 
with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two bands, 
and said: If Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the 
other company which is left shall escape. And Jacob said: O God of 
my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh! which didst 
say unto me, Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will do 
thee good; I am not worthy of the least of all Thy mercies and of all the 
truth which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant; for with my staff 
passed I over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver 
me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother Esau; for I fear him, 
lest he come to smite me and the mother with the children. And Thou 
‘didst say, Surely I will do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand 
of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. And he rose up 
that night and took his two wives and his two women-servants and his 
eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. 

And Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with him until 
the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against 
him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh 
was strained as he wrestled with him. And he said: Let me go, for 
the day breaketh. And he said: I will not let thee go unless thou bless 
me. And he said unto him: What is thy name? And he said: Jacob. 
And he said: Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel; for 
thou hast striven with God and with man and hast prevailed. And Jacob 
asked him, and said: Tell me, I pray, thy name. And he said: Where- 
fore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. 
And Jacob called the name of the place, Peniel (The face of God); for 
he said: I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And 
the sun rose upon him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped upon 
his thigh. 

And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau came and 
with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah and 
unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. And he put the handmaids 
and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel 
and Joseph hindermost. And he himself passed over before them, and 
bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his 
brother. And Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his 
neck and kissed him; and they wept. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw 
the women and the children, and said: Who are these with thee? And 
he said: The children which God hath graciously given to thy servant. 
Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they 
bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near and 
bowed themselves; and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they also 
bowed themselves. And Esau said: What is all this band of thine 
that I met? And he said: To find grace in the sight of my lord. And 
he said: I have enough, my brother; Let that thou hast be thine. And 
Jacob said: Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, 
then take thou my present at my hand; forasmuch as I have seen thy 
face, as one seeth the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. Take, 
I pray thee, my gift that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 49 


graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, 
and he took it. And he said: Let us take our journey and let us go, 
and I will go before thee. And he said unto him: My lord knoweth 
that the children are tender, and I have flocks and herds with their 
young, and if they overdrive them one day all the flock will die. Let my 
lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant; and I will lead on softly, 
according to the pace of the cattle that are before me, and according 
to the pace of the children, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. And 
Esau said: Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with 
me. And he said: Why so? let me find grace in the sight of my lord. 
So Esau turned back that day on his way unto Seir. But Jacob journeyed 
to Succoth and built him booths for his cattle; therefore the name of 
the place is called Succoth (booths). And Jacob came in peace to the 
city of Shechem. 

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out 
to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem, the son of 
Hamor the Hivite, prince of the land, saw her, he took her and 
lay with her and humbled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah, the 
daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel and spake kindly to her. 
And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons 
were with his cattle in the field; and Jacob held his peace until they 
were come. And the sons of Jacob came in from the field and when the 
men heard it they were very grieved, and their anger burned exceed- 
ingly because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s 
daughter, which thing ought not to be done. But Shechem said unto her 
father and unto her brethren: Let me find grace in your eyes, and 
what ye shall say unto me, that will I give. Ask me never so much 
dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me; 
but give me the damsel to wife. And they said unto him: We ean not 
do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for this 
were a reproach unto us. Only under this [condition] will we consent; 
if ye will be like us and circumcise every male among you. And the 
young man delayed not to do so, because he had delight in Jacob’s 
daughter. And he was honored above all the house of his father. 

Then two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, 
took each man his sword and came upon the city unawares, and slew 
all the males. And they slew Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the 
edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went 
out. Then said Jacob unto Simeon and Levi: Ye have troubled me in 
making me loathsome among the inhabitants of the land, among the 
Canaanites and the Perizzites; and I being few in number, they will 
gather themselves together against me, and slay me, I and my house. 
And they answered: Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot? 

Then Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, 
Beth-el, he and all the people with him. And he built there an altar, 
and called the place El-Beth-el (the God of Bethel); because there God 
had appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. 
And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He had talked with him, even 
a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink-offering thereon, and he poured 
oil thereon. And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond Migdol- 
Eder (the Tower of the flock). And it came to pass, while Israel dwelt 
in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concu- 
bine, and Israel heard of it. 

And Jacob came to Mamre, unto Isaac his father. And Isaac died; 
and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. 


50 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Section IV.—The Sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites and his Career in 
Egypt. (Genesis, xxxVil, 3a; 4, 43-18, 25-27, 28¢, 31-35; xxxix ai 
41-44, 46b-48, 54-56; xliii-xliv; xlv, 1a, 4, 5a, 7a, 9b, 10-12, 14, 49, 
21h, 274a,;°28; zlvi, fa; 238i; Xivil, 4-4,-50:64.2748,15-26,. 29-31 
4:2, 8-1d cl et ed 
Materials. The same as before. 


Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was 
the son of his old age. And when his brethren saw that their father 
loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not 
speak to him peaceably. 

And Israel said unto Joseph: Are not thy brethren shepherding the 
flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said: 
Here am I. And he said to him: Go, I pray thee, and see if it be well 
with thy brethren and well with the flocks, and bring me word again. 
So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron and he came to Shechem. And 
a certain man found him and behold, he was wandering in the fields. 
And the man asked him, saying: What seekest thou? And he said: I 
seek my brethren; tell me, I pray thee, where they are shepherding. 
And the man said: They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let 
us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them 
in Dothan. 

Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto 
them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they sat down to 
eat bread. And they lifted up their eyes and looked; and behold, a 
company of Ishmaelites coming: from Gilead with their camels bearing 
spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And 
Judah said unto his brethren: What profit is it if we slay our brother 
and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites; and 
let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh. And 
his brethren were content, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty - 
pieces of silver. And they took Joseph’s tunic, and killed a buck of the 
goats, and dipped the tunic in his blood, and brought it to their father, 
and said: This have we found. Know now whether it be thy son’s 
tunic or not. And he knew it, and said: It is my son’s tunic; an evil 
beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. 

And Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and 
mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters 
rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said: 
I will go down into the grave to my son, mourning. And his father 
wept for him. 

But Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of 
Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him out of the 
hands of the Ishmaelites which had brought him down thither. And 
Yahweh was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was 
in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that Yah- 
weh was with him, and that Yahweh made all that he did to prosper in 
his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him; and 
he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into 
his hand. And from the time that he made him overseer in his house 
and over all that he had, Yahweh blessed the Egyptian’s house for 
Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of Yahweh was upon all that he had in 
the house and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; 
and he knew not what he possessed, save the bread that he did eat. And 
Joseph was of a fine figure, and goodly to look upon. 

Now it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 51 


her eyes* upon Joseph, and said: Lie with me. But he refused, and 
said unto his master’s wife: Behold, my master knoweth not what is 
with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my 
hand. There is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he 
kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How, 
then, can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And it came 
to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto 
her to lie by her or to be with her. And it came to pass about this time, 
as he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the 
house were within, that she caught him by his garment saying, Lie 
with me; and he left his garment in her hand and fled, and got out of the 
house. And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment 
in her hand and had escaped, that she called unto the men of her house 
and spake unto them, saying: See, he hath brought in a Hebrew unto 
us to mock us. He came in to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. 
And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, 
that he left his garment with me and fled and got away. And she laid 
up his garment near her until his master should come home. Then she 
spake to him according to these words, saying: The Hebrew servant 
which thou hast brought unto us came in unto me to mock us; and it 
came to pass, when I lifted up-my voice and cried aloud, that he left his 
garment with me and fled. And it came to pass, when his master heard 
the words of his wife, saying: After this manner did thy servant to 
me, his wrath was kindled. And Joseph’s master took him and put him 
into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were bound; and he 
was there in the prison. 

But Yahweh was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave 
him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper 
of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in 
the prison; and whatsoever was done there, he was the doer. The 
keeper of the prison saw to nothing whatever that was under his hand; 
and whatever he did, Yahweh made it prosper”2 . . . 


* 4 * * * * * 


Then Pharaoh said unto Joseph: See, I have set thee over all the 
land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put 
it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in vesture of fine linen and put a 
chain of gold about his neck, and made him ride in the second chariot 
which he had. And they cried before him: Bow the knee! Thus he 
set hém over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph: I 
am Pharaoh; but without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in 
all the land of Egypt. 

And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went 
throughout all the land of Egypt; and he gathered up all the food of 
the seven years (of plenty) which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up 
the food in the cities; the food of the fields round about every eity laid 
he up in the same. And the seven years of dearth began to come, accord- 
ing as Joseph had said. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, 
the people cried unto Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said unto all the 

1A strikingly similar tale is found in Egyptian folk-lore. See ‘Egyptian Tales’’, trans- 
lated by Wm. T. Flinders-Petrie. , 

2 The two stories of Joseph’s experiences in Egypt were so dovetailed together by JE — 
and afterwards revised by P, that it is scarcely possible to separate them. - The account 
of his rise to power is given only from E; but the references to it and to the earlier visit 
of his brethren in J establish the existence of J’s earlier though perhaps not so detailed 


version. In J’s account, Judah is the chief spokesman. for the brethren; in E’s, it is 
Reuben. J’s account of Joseph’s introduction to Pharaoh is missing. 


52 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Egyptians: Go unto Joseph; what he saith unto you, do. And the 
famine was over all the face of the earth. Then Joseph opened all the 
storehouses and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine waxed sore in 
the land of Egypt. 


* ** * * * x * 


Now the famine was sore in the land [of Canaan]. And it came fo 
pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out 
of Egypt, their father said: Go again, buy us a little food. And Judah 
spake unto him, saying: The man did solemnly charge us, saying, Ye 
shall not see my face except your brother be with you. If thou wilt 
send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if 
thou wilt not send him, we will not go down; for the man said unto us, 
Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you. And Israel 
said: Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me as totell the man whether 
ye had yet a brother? And they said: The man asked us straitly of our 
state and of our kindred, saying: Is your father yet alive? Have 
ye another brother? and we told him according to the words of his 
mouth. Could we certainly know that he would say, Bring down your 
brother? And Judah said unfo Israel his father: Send the lad with 
me, and we will arise and go; that we may live and not die, both we 
and thou and also our little ones. I will be surety for him. Of my 
hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not to thee and set him 
before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. And except we had 
lingered, surely now we had returned the second time. And their father 
Israel said unto them: If it must be so now, do this. Take of the best 
fruits in the land in your vessels and carry down a present to the man, 
a little balm and a little honey; spicery and myrrh, nuts and almonds, 
and take double money in your hand; and the money that was returned 
in the mouth of your sacks carry again in your hand; peradventure it 
was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise, go again to the 
man. And the men took that present, and they took double money in 
their hand, and Benjamin, and rose up and went down to Egypt and 
stood before Joseph. And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he 
said to the steward of his house: Bring these men into the house, and 
slay and make ready; for these men shall dine with me at noon. And 
the man did as Joseph bade; and the man brought the men into Joseph’s 
house. And the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph’s 
house; and they said: Because of the money that was returned in our 
sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion 
against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses. 
And they came near to the steward of Joseph’s house, and they com- 
muned with him at the door of the house, and said: Oh, my lord, 
verily we came down at the first to buy food; and it came to pass when 
we came to the lodging-place, that we opened our sacks, and behold, 
every man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full 
weight. Now we have brought it again in our hand. And other money 
have we brought down in our hands to buy food. We cannot tell who 
put our money in our sacks. And he said: Be at peace. Fear nof; 
your God, and the God of your father hath given you treasure in your 
sacks. Your money came to me. And the man brought the men into 
Joseph’s house and gave them water, and they washed their feet; 
and he gave their asses provender. And they made ready the present 
against Joseph came at noon, for they heard that they should eat 
bread there. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 53 


Now when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which 
was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to the earth. 
And he asked them of their welfare, and said: Is your father well, the 
old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? And they answered: Thy 
servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed 
down their heads and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and 
saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said: Is this your 
younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said: God be 
gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste, for his bowels 
did yearn upon his brother. And he sought where to weep; and he 
entered his chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face and went 
out, and refrained himself, and said: Set on bread. And they set on 
for him by himself and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians 
which did eat with him by themselves; because the Egyptians might 
not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the 
Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his 
birthright and the youngest according to his youth; and the men mar- 
velled one with another. And portions were taken from him for them, 
-but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And 
they drank and were merry with him. 

And he commanded the steward of his house, saying: Fill the men’s 
sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man’s money 
in his sack’s mouth. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s 
mouth of the youngest, and his corn-money. And he did according to 
the word that Joseph had spoken. 

As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and 
their asses. And when they were gone out of the city, not far, Joseph 
said unto his steward: Up, follow after the men; and when thou dost 
overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for 
good? Is not this it in which my lord drinketh and whereby indeed he 
divineth? Ye have done evil in so doing. And he overtook them, and 
he spake unto them these same words. And they said unto him: Where- 
fore said my lord these words? God forbid that thy servants should 
do such a thing. Behold, the money which we found in our sacks’ 
mouths we brought again to thee out of the land of Canaan; how then 
should we steal out of thy lord’s house silver or gold? With whomsoever 
of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my 
lord’s bondmen. And he said: Now let it be according unto your 
words; he with whom it is found shall be my servant, and ye shall 
be blameless. Then they hasted and took down every man his sack to 
the ground, and every man opened his sack. And he searched, and 
began at the oldest and ended with the youngest; and the cup was found 
in Benjamin’s sack. Then they rent their clothes and laded every man 
his ass and returned to the city. 

And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph’s house, for he was yet 
there; and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto 
them: What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a 
man 4s I can certainly divine? And Judah said: What shall we say 
unto my lord? What shall we speak, or how shall we clear ourselves? 
God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. Behold, we are my 
lord’s servants, both we and he also with whom this cup is found. And 
he said: God forbid that I should do so; the man in whose hand the 
cup is found, he shall be my servant. And as for you, get you in peace 
unto your father. 

Then Judah came near unto him, and said: Oh, my lord, let thy 


D4 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not thine 
anger burn against thy servant; for thou art even as Pharaoh. My 
lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a brother? And we 
said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his 
old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his 
mother, and his father loveth him. And thou saidst unto thy servants: 
Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him. And we 
said unto my lord: The lad cannot leave his father; for, if he should 
leave his father, his father would die. And thou saidst unto thy 
servants: Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall 
see my face no more. And it came to pass, when we came up unto thy 
servant our father, we told him the words of my lord. And our father 
said: Go again, and buy us a little food. And we said: We cannot 
again go down. If our youngest brother be with us, then will we go 
down; but we may not see the man’s face except our youngest brother 
be with us. And thy servant, our father, said unto us: Ye know that 
my wife bare me two sons. And the one went out from me, and I said: 
Surely he is torn in pieces. And I have not seen him since; and if ye 
take this one also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring 
down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Now therefore, when I 
come to thy servant, my father, and the lad is not with us, seeing that 
his life is bound up in the lad’s life, it shall come to pass, when he seeth 
that the lad is not with us, that he will die; and thy servants shall 
bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to 
the grave. For thy servant hecame surety for the lad unto my father, 
saying: If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my 
father forever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead 
of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. 
For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad not with me, and see 
the sorrow that shall come upon my father? 

Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by 
him; and he cried: Cause every man to go out from me. And Joseph 
said unto his brethren: Come near to me, I pray you. And they came 
near. And he said: I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into 
Egypt. Now therefore, be not troubled that ye sold me hither; for God 
sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth. Go up to 
my father and say unto him: Come down unto me, and tarry not; and 
thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, thou and thy children and thy 
children’s children, and thy flocks and thy herds and all that thou hast. 
And there will I provide for thee, for still there are five years of famine; 
lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty. And 
behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is 
my mouth that speaketh unto you. (And he fell upon his brother Benja- 
min’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.) Now I com- 
mand you, this do; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your 
little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. And 
the sons of Israel did so. And they told their father all the words of 
Joseph which he had said unto them. And Israel said: It is enough; 
Joseph, my son, is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die. 

And Israel took his journey with all that he had. And he sent Judah 
before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen, and they came 
into the land of Goshen. And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went 
up to Goshen to meet his father, and presented himself unto him; and 
he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. And Israel said 
unto Joseph: Now let me die since I have seen thy face, that thou art 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 55 


yet alive. And Joseph said unto his brethren and unto his father’s 
house: I will go up and show Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren 
and my father’s house, which were im fhe land of Canaan, are come unto 
me. And the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed 
cattle; and they have brought their flocks and their herds, and all that 
they have. And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you and 
say: What is your occupation? that ye shall say, Thy servants have 
been keepers of cattle from our youth up until now, both we and also 
our fathers; that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd 
is an abomination unto the Egyptians. 

Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said: My father and my 
brethren, and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, are 
come out of the land of Canaan, and behold, they are in the land of 
Goshen. And he took some of his brethren, five men, and presented 
them unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren: What is 
your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh: Thy servants are 
shepherds, both we and also our fathers. They said moreover unto 
Pharaoh: For to sojourn in the land are we come, for thy servants have 
no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan. 
Now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. 
And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying: In the land of Goshen let them 
dwell; and, if thou knowest any capable men among them, then make 
them rulers over my cattle. And Joseph provided his father and his 
brethren and all his father’s household with food according to the 
number of children. And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the 
province of Goshen. 

And there was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very 
sore; so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason 
of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money to be found in 
the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan by reason of the corn which 
they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. And 
when money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all 
the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said: Give us bread; for why 
should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth. And Joseph said: 
Give your cattle, and I will give you grain for your cattle, if money 
fail. And they brought their cattle unto Joseph. And Joseph gave them 
in exchange for horses and for the flocks, and for the herds of cattle 
and the asses. And he fed them with bread for that year in exchange 
for their cattle. When that year was ended, they came unto him the 
second year, and said unto him: We will not hide it from my lord, that 
our money is spent; my lord also hath our cattle. There is nought left 
in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. Wherefore shall 
we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land 
for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh. And give 
us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land be not desolate. 

And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyp- 
tians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them. 
So the land became Pharaoh’s. And as to the people, he removed them 
to cities from one end of Egypt even to the ofher end thereof. Only the 
land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion from 
Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; hence 
they did not sell their lands. Then Joseph said unto the people: Be- 
hold, I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh; lo, here 
is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass at 
the ingatherings, that ye shall give a fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four 


56 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food and for 
them of your households, and for food for your little ones. And they 
said: Thou hast saved our lives; let us find grace in the sight of my 
lord, and we will be the servants of Pharaoh. And Joseph made it a 
law for the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the 
fifth part; only the land of the priests became not Pharaoh’s. 

Now the time drew nigh that Israel must die. And he called his son 
Joseph, and said unto him: If now I have found grace in thy sight, Put, 
I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. 
Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt; but I would lie with my fathers; and 
thou shalt carry me up from Egypt and bury me in their burying place. 
And he said: I will do as thou hast said. And he said: Swear unto 
me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed down upon the head 
of the bed. 

And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and 
kissed him. Then Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to 
embalm his father, and forty days were fulfilled for him, for so are 
fulfilled the days for those which are embalmed, and the Egyptians 
mourned for him three-score and ten days. And when the days of his 
mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying: 
If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears 
of Pharaoh, saying: My father made me swear, saying: Lo, I die; , 
in the grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there 
shalt thou bury me. Now, therefore, lef me go up, I pray thee, and 
bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said: Go up and 
bury thy father, according as he made thee swear. 

And Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all 
the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of 
the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his 
father’s house. Only their little ones, and their flocks and their herds 
they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both 
chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company. 

And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jor- 
dan; and there they mourned with a very great and sore lamentation, 
and he made a mourning for his father for seven days. And when the 
inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the Floor 
of Atad, they said: This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians. 
Wherefore the name of it was called Abel-Misraim (the Mourning of the 
Egyptians), which is beyond Jordan. 

And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that 
ee up with him to bury his father, after that he had buried his 

ather. 


CHAPTER II 
THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT 


SECTION I.—From the Flight of Moses to Midian, to his last Interview 
with the Pharaoh, and the Institution of the Feast of the Passover. 
(Exodus i, 6-14; ii, 15-22, 25a; ili, 2-4a, 5, 7-8, 16-18; iv, 1-16, 19-20, 
22-26, 29-31; v, 1-3, 5-23; vii, 14, 16, 17b-18, 26, 24-28; viii, 4-6, 8-11, 
Ree nk te oe Le oC ee eal o 49) Xs 4-44 .0-13b, 4b 5a. 
16-19, 24-26; xi, 4-8; xii, 24-27, 37a; xii, 20-24, 3-16.) 

Materials: Still largely traditions transmitted orally. 


And Joseph died, and all his brethren and all that generation. Now 
there rose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph. And he 
said to his people: Behold, the people of the Children of Israel are 
more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them lest 
they multiply, and it come to pass that, when there falleth out any war, 
they join also with our enemies and fight against us, and so get them 
out of the land. 

Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with 
their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and 
Ramses. But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied 
and spread. And they feared the Children of Israel.’ 


* * * * * * * 


Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses; but 
‘Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; 
and he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daugh- 
ters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their 
father’s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away; but 
Moses rose up and helped them and watered their flock. And when they 
came to Reuel, their father, he said: How is it that ye are come so soon 
to-day? And they said: An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of 
the shepherds, and also drew enough for us and watered the flock. And 
he said to his daughters: And where is he? Why is it ye have left 
the man? Call him, that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to 
dwell with the man; and he gave Zipporah, his daughter, to Moses. And 
she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said: A 
stranger have I been in a foreign land. 

And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died. 
Then the Messenger of Yahweh appeared to him [Moses] in a flame of 
fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush 
burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said: I 
will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not 

1The Birth of Moses and the occasion of the Pharaoh’s anger were taken by JE 
from E’s work (pp. 196-7). The older pharaoh has been identified as Rameses II. of 


the XIXth dynasty. The one with whom Moses pleaded was Mer-en-Ptah (B.c. 1225-1215), 
his son, and possibly a school-mate of the great Leader. 


57 


58 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


consumed. And Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, and He said: 
Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest 
is holy ground. 

And Yahweh said: I have surely seen the affliction of My people 
which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry for help because of their 
task-masters, for I know their suffering. And I am come down to 
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out 
of that land unto a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and 
honey; unto the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite 
and the Perizzite and Hivite and the Jebusite. Go and gather together 
the elders of Israel, and say unto them: Yahweh the God of your 
fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob appeared unto me, 
saying: I have surely visited you and seen that which is done unto 
you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction 
of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites and Hittites and the Amorites 
and Perizzites and the Hivites and Jebusites, unto a land flowing with 
milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice. And thou shalt 
come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the King of Egypt; and ye shall 
say unto him: Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, hath met with us; and 
now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, 
that we may sacrifice unlo Yahweh our God. 

And Moses answered and said: But, behold, they will not believe me 
nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say: Yahweh hath not ap- 
peared unto thee. And Yahweh said unto him: What is that in thine 
hand? And he said: A rod. And He said: Cast it upon the ground. 
And he cast it on the ground; and it became a serpent, and Moses fled 
before it. And Yahweh said unto Moses: Put forth thine hand and take 
it by the tail (and he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became 
a rod in his hand), that they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their 
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob 
hath appeared unto thee. And Yahweh said furthermore unto him: 
Put now thine hand into thy bosom; and when he took it out, behold, 
his hand was leprous, as white as snow. And He said: Put thine hand 
into thy bosom again; and he put his hand into his bosom again, and 
plucked it out of his bosom; and behold, it was restored as his flesh; and 
it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to 
the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter 
sign. And it shall be, if they will not believe even these two signs 
neither hearken to thy voice, that thou shalt take of the waters of the 
river and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest 
out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. 

And Moses said unto Yahweh: O, my Lord, I am not eloquent, 
neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, for 
unready of speech and slow of tongue am I. And Yahweh said unto 
him: Who hath given man speech, or who maketh the dumb or the 
deaf or the open-eyed or the blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? And now, go, 
and I will be with thy speech, and will teach thee what thou shalt say. 
And he said: O, Yahweh, send, I pray thee, by the hand Thou wilt send! 
And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Moses, and He said: Is 
not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well; and, 
also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he seeth thee, he 
will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him and put words 
in his mouth; and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth, and 
will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto 
the people, and verily he shall be as a mouth for thee, and thou shalt 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 59 


be for him as God. And Yahweh said unto Moses in Midian: Go, return 
into Egypt, for all the men are dead which sought thy life. (And Moses 
took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass, and he returned to 
the land of Egypt.) And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh: Thus saith Yah- 
weh, Israel is My son, even My firstborn. And I say unto thee, Let My 
son go, that he may serve Me; and, if you wilt not let him go, behold, 
I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. 

And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that Yahweh met him and 
sought to kill him. Then Zipporah look a sharp stone and cut off the 
foreskin of her son and cast it at his feet, and said: Surely, a bloody 
husband art thou to me. So He let him go. Then she said: A bloody 
husband art thou! (because of the circumcision). 

And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders 
of the Children of Israel, and Aaron spake all the words which Yahweh 
had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 
And the people believed. And when they heard that Yahweh had visited 
the Children of Israel and had seen their affliction, they bowed their 
heads and worshiped. And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and 
told Pharaoh: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel, Let my people go, 
that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said: 
Who is Yahweh that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know 
not Yahweh, neither will I let Israel go. And they said: The God of 
the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three days’ 
journey into the wilderness and sacrifice unto Yahweh, our God, lest 
He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. And the king of 
Egypt said unto them: Why do ye, Moses and Aaron, hinder the people 
from their work? get ye to your tasks. And Pharaoh said: Behold, the 
people of the land now are many, and ye make them cease from their 
tasks. And the same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the 
people and their officers, saying: . Ye shall not continue to give the 
people straw for moulding the bricks as heretofore. Let them go and 
gather straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks which they did 
make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them. Ye shall not diminish aught 
thereof, for they be idle. Therefore they cry, saying: Let us go and 
sacrifice to our God. Let more work be laid upon the men that they may 
toil over it, and let them not regard vain words. 

Then the taskmasters of the people went out and their officers, and 
they spake to the people, saying: Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give 
you straw. Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it, but naught shall 
be deducted from your service therefor. So the people were scattered 
abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather chaff instead of straw. 
And the taskmasters were urgent, saying: Fulfil your tasks, the tale 
of each day, as when there was straw. And the officers of the Children 
of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten 
and were asked: Wherefore have ye not finished as heretofore your 
tale of bricks either yesterday or to-day? And the officrs of the Chil- 
dren of Israel came to Pharaoh and cried for help, saying: Why dost 
thou act thus toward thy servants? no straw is given us, yet they 
say: Make brick. And behold, thy servants are beaten when it is the 
fault of thine own people. But he said: Ye are idle, ye are idle; 
therefore do ye say, Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh. Go now, and 
work; for no straw shall be given you, yet ye shall deliver the full tale 
of brick. 

And the officers of the Children of Israel saw that they were in evil 
case when they were told: Ye shall not lessen the daily tale of your 


60 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


bricks. And they came to Moses and Aaron who had stationed them- 
selves to meet them as they should come out from Pharaoh, and they 
said unto them: May Yahweh look upon you and judge you, for ye 
have made our savor odious in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of 
his servants to put a sword in their hands to slay us. And Moses turned 
to Yahweh, and said: Lord, why hast Thou done evil to this people, 
and why is it that Thou hast sent me? for, since I came to Pharaoh to 
speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people, and Thou hast 
done nothing to deliver Thy people. 

Then said Yahweh to Moses: Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he re- 
fuseth to let the people go. Now, thou shalt say unto him: Yahweh, 
God of the Hebrews, sent me unto thee, saying, Let My people go that 
they may serve Me in the wilderness; and behold, hitherto thou wouldst 
not hear. Thus saith Yahweh: Behold I will smite the river; and the fish 
that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink, and the Egyptians 
shall loathe to drink of the river. And the fish that was in the river 
died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water 
from the river (and all the Egyptians digged round about the river 
for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the river). 
And seven days were fulfilled after that Yahweh had smitten the river. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, 
Thus saith Yahweh: Let My people go that they may serve Me; and if 
thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with 
frogs; and the river shall swarm with frogs, and they shall come into 
thy house and into thy bedchamber and upon thy bed, and into the 
house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens and 
into thy kneading troughs; and the frogs shall come up both upon thee 
and upon thy people and upon all thy servants. 

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said: Entreat Yah- 
weh that he take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I 
will let the people go, that they may sacrifice unto Yahweh. And 
Moses said unto Pharaoh: ‘Tell me plainly, when shall I entreat for 
thee, for thy servants and for thy people, that the frogs shall be 
withdrawn from thee and thy house, and shall remain only in the river? 
And he said: To-morrow. And he said: According to thy word shall 
it be, that thou mayest know that there is none like unto Yahweh, 
our God. And the frogs shall depart from thee and from the houses and 
from the servants and from the people; they shall remain in the river 
only. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried 
unto Yahweh because of the frogs which he had brought upon Pharaoh. 
And Yahweh did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out 
of the houses, out of the villages and out of the fields. And they gathered 
them in heaps together, and the land stank. But, when Pharaoh saw 
that there was respite, he hardened his heart. 

Then said Yahweh unto Moses: Rise up early in the morning and 
stand before Pharaoh, (lo, he cometh forth to the water), and say unto 
him: Thus saith Yahweh: Let My people go that they may serve me. 
Else, if thou wilt not let My people go, behold, I will send the gadfly upon 
thee and upon thy servants and upon thy people and into thy houses; 
and the gadflies shall fill the houses of the Egyptians and even the 
ground upon which they rest. And I will sever in that day the land of 
Goshen where My people dwell, that there shall not be a gadfly there; 
that thou mayest know that I, Yahweh, am in the midst of the earth. 
And I will put a division between My people and thy people. To-morrow 
shall this sign be. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 61 


And Yahweh did so. And the gadfly came in swarms into the house 
of Pharaoh and into his servants’ houses, and in all the land of Egypt 
the land was corrupted by reason of the gadflies. And Pharaoh called 
for Moses and for Aaron, and said: Go, sacrifice to your God in the land. 
And Moses said: It is not fitting so to do, for we shall sacrifice the 
abomination of the Egyptians to Yahweh our God; lo, shall we sacrifice 
the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and shall they not 
stone us? We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sac- 
rifice to Yahweh our God, as He shall command us. And Pharaoh said: 
I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to Yahweh your God in the wilder- 
ness; only ye shall not go very far away. Entreat for me. And Moses 
said: Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat Yahweh that the gad- 
fly may depart from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people 
to-morrow; only, let not Pharaoh confinue to deceive by not letting the 
people go to sacrifice to Yahweh. And Moses went out from Pharaoh 
and entreated Yahweh. And Yahweh did according to the word of Moses, 
and he removed the gadflies from Pharaoh, from his servants and from 
his people. There remained not one. But Pharaoh hardened his heart 
this time also, and he did not let the people go. 

Then Yahweh said unto Moses: Go in unto Pharaoh and tell him, 
Thus saith Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews: Let My people go that 
they may serve Me. For, if thou refuse to let them go and still wilt 
hold them fast, behold, the hand of Yahweh is upon thy cattle which 
are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the oxen and 
upon the sheep, a very grievous plague. And Yahweh will distinguish 
between Israel’s cattle and the cattle of Egypt, and nothing shall die 
of all that belongeth to the Children of Israel. And Yahweh appointed 
a set time, saying: To-morrow Yahweh shall do this thing in the land. 
And Yahweh did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of 
Egypt died; but of the cattle of the Children of Israel died not one. 
And Pharaoh sent, and behold, of Israel’s cattle not one was dead. 
And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the 
people go. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Rise up early in the morning and 
stand before Pharaoh and say unto him, Thus saith Yahweh, God of 
the Hebrews: Let My people go that they may serve Me; for this time 
I will send all my plagues upon thy heart and upon thy servants and 
upon thy people, that thou mayest know there is none like me in all 
the earth. For now I have stretched out My hand and, verily, thou 
and thy people in a pestilence shall disappear from the earth. And in 
very deed, for this.cause have I raised thee up to show thee My power, 
and to make known My name through all the earth. Still art thou 
exalting thyself against My people, that thou wilt not let them go? 
Behold, at this time to-morrow will I pour down a very grievous hail, 
the like of which hath not been in Egypt from the day of its foundation 
until now. Send therefore now, hasten to gather all thy cattle and all 
that thou hast in the field; every man and beast which shall be found 
in the field and shall not be brought home, upon them the hail shall 
come down and they shall die. He that feared the word of Yahweh 
among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee 
into the houses, and he who regarded not the word of Yahweh left his 
servants and cattle in the field. 

And Yahweh rained down hail unon the land of Egypt such as there 
was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation; and 
the hail smote every herb of the field and brake every tree of the field. 


62 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Only in the land of Goshen, where the Children of Israel were, was 
there no hail. 

And Pharaoh sent and cailed for Moses and Aaron, and said unto 
them: I have sinned this time; Yahweh is righteous, and I and my 
people are transgressors. Make supplication to Yahweh, for there has 
been enough of mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, 
and ye shall no longer delay. And Moses said unto him: As soon as 
I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to Yahweh, 
the thunderings shall cease and there shall be no more hail; that thou 
mayest know that the earth belongs to Yahweh. But as for thee and 
thy servants, I know that not yet will ye fear the God Yahweh. Now 
the flax and the barley were smitten, for the barley was in the ear 
and the flax was bolled; but the wheat and the spelt were not smitten, 
for they ripen late. And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and 
spread forth his hands to Yahweh, and the thunders and hail ceased, 
and the rain was not poured upon the earth. But when Pharaoh saw 
that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet 
more and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Go in unto Pharaoh, for I have 
hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I might show 
these My signs before him, and that thou may tell in the ears of thy 
son and of thy son’s son what things I have wrought in Egypt and the 
signs which I have done among them, that ye may know that I am 
Yahweh. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh and said unto 
him: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, How long wilt 
thou refuse to be humbled before Me? Let My people go that they 
may serve Me. For, if thou refuse to let My people go, behold, to- 
morrow I will bring the locusts into thy border, and they shall cover 
the face of the earth, so that one will not be able to see the earth; 
and they shall eat the residue of that which escaped, which remaineth 
unto you from the hail; and they shall eat every tree that groweth up 
- in your fields. And they shal! fill thy houses and the houses of all 
thy servants and the house of all the Egyptians, as neither thy fathers 
nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, from the day they came upon the 
earth to this day. And he turned and went out from Pharaoh. 

And the servants of Pharaoh said unto him: How long shall this 
man be a snare unto us? Let the men go that they may serve Yahweh 
their God. Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is ruined? And Moses 
and Aaron were brought back unto Pharaoh, and he said unto them: 
Go, serve Yahweh your God; but who and what shall go? And Moses 
said: With our young and with our old will we go, with our sons and 
our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for 
us it is a feast unto Yahweh. And he said unto them: So may Yahweh 
be with you, as I shall let you and your little ones go. Look out, for 
evil is before you. Not so! Go now, ye that be men, and serve Yahweh, 
for that is what ye asked. And they drove them from Pharaoh’s pres- 
ence. And Yahweh brought an east wind over the land all that day 
and all the night; when it was morning, the east wind brought locusts; 
very grievous were they; before them were no such locusts as they, 
neither after them shall be such; for they covered the face of the whole 
earth so that the land was darkened; and there remained no green 
thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field through all the land of 
Egypt. 

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said: I 
have sinned against your God and against you. Now, therefore, for- 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 63 


give, I pray thee, my sin but this once and entreat Yahweh your God, 
that he will turn away from me just this death. And he went out 
from Pharaoh and entreated Yahweh; and Yahweh turned a mighty 
strong west wind which bore away the locusts and cast them into the 
Red Sea. There remained not one locust within all the borders of 
Egypt. And Pharaoh called Moses and said: Go, serve Yahweh; only 
your flocks and your herds shall be left behind; your little ones may 
also go with you. And Moses said: Thou must also give into our hands 
sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh, our 
God. Our cattle also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, 
for thereof must we take to serve Yahweh, our God; and we know not 
with what we must serve Yahweh until we come thither. And Pharaoh 
said unto him: Get thee from me; take heed unto thyself; see my face 
no more, for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die. 

Then Moses said: Rightly hast thou spoken; I will see thy face 
no more. Thus saith Yahweh: About midnight I will go forth into 
the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn of Egypt shall die, from the 
firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne unto the firstborn of 
the maidservant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts. 
And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such 
as there hath been none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But 
against any of the Children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, 
against man or beast; that ye may know that Yahweh doth put a dif- 
ference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants 
shall come down unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that 
follow thee. And after that, I WILL GO OUT. And he went out from 
Pharaoh in a great anger. | 

Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them: 
Draw out and take ye lambs according to your families and kill the 
Passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood 
which is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with 
the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door 
of his house until the morning. For Yahweh will pass over to smite 
the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the 
two side-posts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not suffer 
the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. And ye shall 
observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 
And it shall be, when ye have come into the land which Yahweh will 
give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 
And it shall be, when your children shall say unto you: What mean 
ye by this service? that ye shall say: This is the sacrifice of Yahweh’s 
Passover, who passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt 
when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And the people 
bowed the head and worshiped; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and 
Aaron, so did they. 

And it came to pass, at midnight, that Yahweh smote all the firstborn 
in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on the 
throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and 
all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and 
all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in 
Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And 
he summoned Moses and Aaron by night, and said: Rise up, get you 
forth from among my people, both ye and the Children of Israel; and 
go, serve Yahweh as ye have said. Take both your flocks and your 
herds, as ye have said, and begone! 


64 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And the Children of Israel] took their journey from Ramses to Suc- 
coth, and from Succoth they took their journey and encamped in Etham, 
in the edge of the wilderness. And Yahweh went before them by day 
in a pillar of cloud, to lead the way for them; and by night in a pillar 
of fire, to give them light. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar 
of fire by night departed not from before the people. Then Moses said 
unto the people: Remember this day in which ye came out from Egypt, 
out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought 
you out from this place. This day are ye going out, in the month Abib. 
And it shall be when Yahweh shall bring you into the land of the 
Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Jebusites which 
he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and 
honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. Seven days 
shalt thou eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast 
to Yahweh. Unleavened bread shali be eaten seven days; and there 
shall be no leavened bread seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven 
seen with thee in all thy quarters. And thou shalt explain to thy son 
in that day, saying: This is because of what Yahweh did for me in 
bringing me out of Egypt. And it shall be a sign for thee upon thy 
hand and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the law of Yahweh 
may be in thy mouth; for with a strong hand hath Yahweh brought 
thee out of Egypt. Therefore shalt thou keep this ordinance in its 
season from year to year. 

And it shall be when Yahweh shall bring thee into the land of the 
Canaanites, as He sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give 
it thee, that thou shalt set apart all that openeth the womb, every first- 
ling that cometh of a beast that belongeth to thee; the males shall 
belong to Yahweh. And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem 
with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, thou shalt break his neck. 
And all the firstborn of man among thy children thou shalt redeem. 
And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying: 
What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand Yahweh 
brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to 
pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that Yahweh slew all the 
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of man and beast. Therefore I 
sacrifice to Yahweh all that openeth the matrix, being males: but all 
the firstborn of my children I redeem. And it shall be for a sign upon 
thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes; for by strength of 
hand, Yahweh brought us out of Egypt. 


Section II.—The Egyptians pursue the Israelites. The Crossing of the 
Red Sea, and the Destruction of the Pursuers. The Journey along 
the Seacoast to Sinai. (Ex. xiv, 5-7, 10a, 11-14, 19b-20, 21b, 24-25, 
27b,° 30-345. Xv, (22-275 Xvi, aA-9, 20°30; xvii,’ 1-2) ee ee 
Materials: Still only oral traditions, with some possible records by 
Moses and Aaron. The only Egyptian record found so far men- 
tions Israel as already in Syria in the reign of Mer en Ptah; this 
may or may not be taken for their stay in Kadesh, before they 
turned back to the Syrian Desert. 


And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled. And the 
heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, 
and they said: Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 65 


from serving us? And he made ready his char‘ot and took his people 
with him; and he took six hundred chosen chariots, all the chariots of 
Egypt, and captains over every one of them. And when Pharaoh drew 
nigh, the Children of Israel lifted up their eyes and, behold, the Egyp- 
tians marched after them, and they were sore afraid. And they said 
unto Moses: Were there no graves in Egypt that thou hast brought 
us out to die in the wilderness? What is this thou hast done unto us 
in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we spake unto 
thee in Egypt, saying: Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, 
for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die 
in the wilderness? And Moses said unto the people: Fear not; stand 
still and see the salvation of Yahweh which He will work for you to-day; 
for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again 
no more for ever. Yahweh shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your 
peace. And the pillar of cloud removed from before them and stood 
behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and 
the camp of Israel; and it was cloud and darkness to them, but it gave 
light by night to these, so that the one came not nigh the other all 
the night. 

And Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all 
that night and made the sea dry land. And it came to pass in the 
morning watch that Yahweh looked through the pillar of fire and cloud 
upon the host of the Egyptians and discomfited the Egyptians, and 
took off their chariot wheels and made them go heavily, so that the 
Egyptians said: Let us flee from the face of Israel, for Yahweh is 
fighting for them against the Egyptians. And the sea returned to its 
strength when morning dawned, and the Egyptians, fleeing, encountered 
it, and Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 

Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyp- 
tians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And 
Israel saw the great work which Yahweh did upon the Egyptians; and 
the people feared Yahweh, and believed in Yahweh, and in Moses his 
servant. 

So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went into the. 
wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and 
found no water. And when they came to Marah they could not drink 
of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; (therefore the name of 
it was Marah). And the people murmured against Moses, saying: 
What shall we drink? And he cried unto Yahweh, and Yahweh showed 
him a tree which he caused to be thrown into the waters, and the 
waters became sweet. There he laid down a statute for them and an 
ordinance, and there he tested them, and said: If thou wilt diligently 
hearken to the voice of Yahweh, thy God, and wilt do that which is 
right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments and keep 
all His statutes, I will put none of those diseases upon thee which I 
have brought upon the Egyptians; for I, Yahweh, am He who healeth 
thee. 

And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water and three- 
score and ten palmtrees; and they encamped there by the waters. 

Then said Yahweh unto Moses: Behold, I will rain bread’? from 
heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate 
each day, that I may prove them whether they will walk in My law 
or not. And it shall be that on the sixth day, they shall prepare what 


1E gives full details of the murmurings of the people barely mentioned by J. Chap- 
Kk ae and xix are largely the work of P, the priestly group of editors in the Persian 
period. 


66 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


they shall bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 
And Moses said: Eat that to-day, for to-day is the sabbath unto Yahweh; 
to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days shall ye gather it; but 
on the seventh day, the sabbath, in it there shall be none. (And it came 
to pass that some of the people went out on the seventh day in order 
to gather, and they found none.) And Yahweh said unto Moses: How 
long will ye refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See, 
because Yahweh hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you 
on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain at home; 
let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people 
rested on the seventh day. 

And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the 
people did chide with Moses and said: Give us water that we may 
drink. And Moses said unto them: Why chide ye with me? Why 
tempt ye Yahweh? And he called the name of the place Massah and 
Meribah, because of the chiding of the Children of Israel, and because 
they tempted Yahweh, saying: Is Yahweh among us or not? 

And Yahweh came down upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mount. 
And Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mount; and Moses went 
up. And Yahweh said unto Moses: Go down, charge the people, lest 
they break through unto Yahweh to gaze, and many of them perish. 
And let the priests also that come near unto Yahweh sanctify them- 
selves, lest Yahweh break through upon them. And Moses said unto 
Yahweh: The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for Thou didst 
charge us, saying: Set bounds about the mount and sanctify it. And 
Yahweh said unto him: Go, get thee down; and thou shalt come up, 
thou and Aaron with thee; but let not the priests and the people break 
through to come up unto Yahweh, lest He break forth upon them. So 
Moses went down unto the people and told them. 


SECTION III.—The Feast of the Covenant on Sinai. Yahweh’s anger 
against the swift Apostasy of the People appeased by Moses. The 
Second Tables of the Law. The Departure from Sinai. Renewed 
murmurings against Moses. The consequent Plague. The journey 
to Kadesh. Spies sent to Survey the Hill country as far as Hebron; 
their report. The people refuse to enter Canaan, and are turned 
back to the Desert (Steppes). (Exod. xxiv, 1-2; xxxii, 9-44; xxxiii, 
12-23; xxxiv, 1-26. Numb. x, 28b-32; xi, 4-16a, 18-23, 34-35; xiii, 4, 
red ethan 22-23, 26-31; xiv, 1b, 3-4, 8-9, 14-24, 341533, 25, 39-42, 
Materials: The written Laws. Possible records. Folk-songs and 
traditions. 


*Then Yahweh said unto Moses: Come up unto Yahweh, thou and 
Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and let 
these worship afar off; Moses alone shall come near unto Yahweh; 
they shall not come near, neither shall the people go up with him. 
Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the 
elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under 
his feet the likeness of a paved work of sapphire stone, and the like 
of the very heaven for clearness. And upon the chiefs of the Children 


; * Ch. xx, 1-21, which gives the Decalogue and the accompanying scene, will be found 
in E’s “Deeds of Moses’. Ch. xxi-xxiii give the “Book of the Covenant’. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 67 


of Israel He laid not His hand; but they beheld God, and did eat and 
drink.’ 


* * * * * * * 


Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying: I have seen this people, and 
behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let Me alone, that 
My wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them; 
and I will make a great nation of thee. 

And Moses besought his God, and said: O Yahweh, why doth Thy 
wrath wax hot against Thy people whom Thou hast brought forth 
out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 
Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying: For evil did He bring 
them forth to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from 
the face of the earth? Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this 
evil against Thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Thy 
servants, to whom Thou didst swear by Thine own self, and saidst 
unto them: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all 
this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed; and they 
shall inherit it forever. 

And Yahweh repented of the evil which He had said He would do 
unto His people. 

And Moses said unto Yahweh: See, Thou sayest unto me, Bring 
up this people, and Thou hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send 
with me. Yet Thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast 
also found favor in My sight. Now, therefore, if I have found grace 
in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee; to the 
end that I may find grace in Thy sight. And consider that this nation 
is Thy people. And he said: I beseech Thee, show me Thy Glory!? 

And He said: I will make all My goodness pass before thee; and I 
will proclaim the name of Yahweh before thee; and I will be gracious 
to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show 
mercy. And He said: Thou canst not see My face, for man shall not 
see Me and live. And Yahweh said: Behold, there is a place by Me, 
and thou shalt stand upon the rock; and it shall come to pass while 
My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will 
cover thee with My hand while I pass by; and I will take away My 
hand, and thou shalt see My back; but My face shall not be seen. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Hew thee two tables of stone like 
unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were 
upon the first tables which thou brakest. And be ready in the morn- 
ing, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself 
there to Me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with 
thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount. And 
Moses hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and rose up early in 
the morning and went up unto mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded 
him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And Yahweh 
descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the 
name of Yahweh. 

And Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed: Yahweh! Yahweh 
the merciful and gracious God, long-suffering and plenteous in goodness 
and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin, 

-1The rest of ch. xxiv is by E save for three verses at the end, added by P. Also E 
alone gives the story of the Golden Calf, and the breaking of the first Tables of the Law. 

Chapters xxxii-xxxiv, 28 were so amalgamated by JE that the usual criteria for 


separating the work of J and of E avail little; one can but recognize the evident repeti- 
tions, but their rearrangement is a matter of individual opinion. 


68 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the 
fathers upon the children and upon the children’s children unto the 
third and unto the fourth generation. 

And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and 
worshiped; and he said: If now I have found grace in Thy sight, 
O Yahweh, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff- 
necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for 
thine inheritance. And He said: My presence shall go with thee, and 
I will give thee rest. And He said unto Him: If Thy presence go not 
with us, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known that 
I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not that Thou 
goest with us so that we shall be separated, I and Thy people, from 
all the people that are on the face of the earth? And Yahweh said 
unto Moses: I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou 
hast found favor in My sight, and I know thee by name. 

And He said: Behold, I make a covenant. Before all thy people, 
I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth nor in 
any nation; and all the people among whom thou art shall see the 
work of Yahweh, for it is a wonderful thing that I am about to do 
with thee. Observe thou that which I command thee this day. Behold, 
I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite 
and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself lest thou make 
a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest 
it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But ye shall destroy their 
altars, break their images and cut down their groves. For thou shalt 
worship no other god. For Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous 
God; lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and 
they go astray after their gods and do sacrifice unto their gods; and 
they shall call thee and thou eat of their sacrifice, and thou take of 
their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go astray after 
their gods and make thy sons go astray after their gods. 

Thou shalt have no molten gods. 

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou 
shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the 
month Abib; for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. 

All that openeth the womb is Mine; and of all thy cattle thou shalt 
sanctify the males, the firstlings of ox and sheep. And the firstling of 
an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it 
thou shalt break its neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt 
redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty. Six days thou shalt 
work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; in ploughing-time and 
in harvest thou shalt rest. 

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the firstfruits 
of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year. 
Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the God | 
Yahweh, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before thee and 
enlarge thy borders; neither shall any man covet thy land, when thou 
goest up to appear before Yahweh thy God three times in the year. 

Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; 
neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left until the 
morning. 

The choicest firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house 
of Yahweh thy God. 

Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Write thou these words; for after 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 69 


the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with 
Israel. And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; 
he did neither eat bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables 
the words of the covenant—THE TEN WORDS. 

And the Children of Israel set forward. And Moses said unto Hobab, 
the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law: We are journey- 
ing unto the place of which Yahweh hath said: I will give it you. 
Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for Yahweh hath spoken 
good concerning Israel. And he answered: I will not go, but I will 
depart to mine own land and to my kindred. And he said: Leave us 
not, I pray thee, forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in 
the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes. And it shall 
be, if thou go with us—yea, it shall be that what goodness Yahweh 
shall do unto us, the same will we do to thee. 

Now the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting; and 
the children of Israel also repented and wept, and said: Who shall 
give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat freely in 
Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks and the onions 
and the garlic. But now, our soul is dried away; there is nothing at 
all besides this manna before our eyes. Then Moses heard the people 
weeping throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent. 
And the anger of Yahweh was kindled greatly. Moses also was dis- 
pleased; and Moses said unto Yahweh: Why hast thou afflicted Thy 
servant, and why have I not found favor in Thy sight, that Thou layest 
the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this 
people? Have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me: 
Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father carries the sucking child, 
unto the land which Thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should 
I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, say- 
ing, Give us flesh that we may eat. Now, if Thou deal thus with me, 
kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in Thy sight; 
and let me not see my wretchedness. 

Then Yahweh said unto Moses: Say unto the people, Sanctify your- 
selves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh; for ye have wept in 
the ears of Yahweh, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was 
’ well with us in Egypt. Therefore Yahweh will give you flesh, and ye 
shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day nor two days nor five days, neither 
ten days nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out 
at your nostrils and it be loathsome unto you; because that ye have 
despised Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying: 
Why came we forth out of Egypt? And Moses said: The people 
among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen;* and Thou hast 
said: I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall 
the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall 
all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? 
And Yahweh said unto Moses, Is the hand of Yahweh weakened? Thou 
shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass or not. And 
there went forth a wind from Yahweh, and it brought quails from the 
sea and scattered them upon the camp, as it were a day’s journey on 
this side and as it were a day’s journey on that side round about the 
camp, two cubits deep on the face of the earth. And the people stood 

1This enormous number would have almost depopulated the Delta. Bishop Colenso 
was the first to question it. Dr. Flinders-Petrie has shown that it came from the mis- 
reading of the Hebrew word Aleph which means both one thousand and family. In accord- 


ance with his clear exposition, we now read, five thousand five hundred men on foot, 
(i.e., soldiers). 


70 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


up all that day and all that night and all the next night, and they 
gathered the quails; he that gathered least gathered ten homers; and 
they spread them out thickly for themselves about the camp. 

The flesh was still between their teeth, not yet swallowed, when 
the wrath of Yahweh flamed against the people, and Yahweh smote 
the people with a very great plague. And the name of that place was 
called Kibroth-hattaavah (Graves of Lust), because there they buried 
the people that lusted. 

From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and 
rested at Hazeroth; afterward the people journeyed from Hazeroth and 
encamped in the wilderness of Paran. 

And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying: Send thou men that they 
may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the Children of 
Israel. And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, and said 
unto them: Get you into the South country (Negeb) and see the people 
that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many, and 
what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and 
what cities they are dwelling in, in camps or in strongholds, and what 
the land is—whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein or 
not. And be of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now 
the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes. 

So they went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron; and Ahiman 
and Sheshai and Talmai, children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron 
was built ten years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came into the 
valley of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster 
of grapes, and they bore it on a pole between two; they took also of 
the pomegranates and of the figs. 

And they returned to the congregation of the Children of Israel 
to Kadesh, and brought back word unto all the congregation, and 
showed them the fruit of the land. And they said: We came unto the 
land whither thou didst send us, and truly it floweth with milk and 
honey, and this is the fruit of it. Howbeit, the people that dwell in 
the land are fierce and the cities are fortified and very great, and more- 
over we saw the children of Anak there. Amalek dwelleth in the Negeb; 
and the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite dwell in the mountains; 
and the Canaanite dwelleth by the sea and alongside of the Jordan. 

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said: Let us go 
up quickly and take possession of it, for we are well able to do it. 
But the men who had gone up with him said: We are not able to go 
up against this people, for they are stronger than we. And the people 
wept that night, and said: Wherefore hath Yahweh brought us unto 
this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be 
for a prey. Were it not better for us to return to Egypt? And they 
said one to another: Let us make a captain, and let us return into 
Egypt. But Caleb the son of Jephunneh said: If Yahweh delights in 
us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that 
floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against Yahweh, neither 
fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defense 
is departed from them, and Yahweh is with us. Fear them not. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: How long will this people provoke 
Me? And how long will they not trust Me after all the signs which 
I have given them? I will smite them with the pestilence and dis- 
inherit them, and I will make of thee a greater and a mightier nation 
than they. 

And Moses said unto Yahweh: Then the Egyptians will hear it— 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 71 


for Thou broughtest up this people in Thy might from among them— 
and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard 
that Thou, O Yahweh, art in the midst of this people, for Thou, O 
Yahweh, art seen face to face; and Thy cloud standeth over them and 
in a pillar of cloud Thou goest before them by day, and in a pillar of 
fire by night. Now if Thou kill this people as one man, then the 
nations which have heard the fame of Yahweh will say: Because He 
was wholly unable to bring this people into the land which He sware 
unto them, therefore hath He slain them in the wilderness. And now, 
I pray Thee, let the power of my Lord be great, as Thou hast spoken, 
saying: Yahweh is slow to wrath and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity 
and transgression, but never leaving it unpunished; visiting the iniquity 
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. 
Forgive, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the 
greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast done unto this people 
until now. 

And Yahweh said: I have forgiven, according to thy word. Never- 
theless, as I live—and all the earth shall be filled with the glory of 
Yahweh—verily, all those men who have seen My glory and My signs 
which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted Me these 
ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice; verily, they shall not 
see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of 
those who despised Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he had 
another spirit in him and he hath followed Me fully, him will I bring 
into the land whither he went, and his seed shall possess it. But your 
little ones, which ye said should be for a prey, them will I bring in, 
and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for 
you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and your children 
shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your 
apostasies until your dead bodies shall be utterly consumed in the 
wilderness. Now, the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the vale. 
To-morrow, turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the 
Red Sea. 

And Moses told all these words unto all the Children of Israel, and 
the people mourned greatly. And they rose up early in the morning, 
and got them up to the top of the mountain, saying: Lo, we are here, 
and will go up unto the place Yahweh hath promised, for we have 
sinned. And Moses said: Wherefore do ye now transgress the com- 
mandment of Yahweh, seeing it shall not prosper? Go not up, for 
Yahweh is not among you; that ye may not be smitten down before 
your enemies. 

But they presumed to go up. Then the Amalekites and the Canaan- 
ites who dwelt in that hill-country came down and smote them, and 
beat them even to Hormah. 


72 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


SEcTION IV.—The Rebellion of Dathan and Abiram.t. The Journey 

Northward of the Second Generation, the original fugitives having 
proved their unfitness for self-government, and died in the Syrian 
steppes. Edom refuses the young host passage; they make a diffi- 
cult detour, and reach Mount Hor. They conquer Arad and destroy 
the Canaanites in the South Country (the Negeb); also Sihon and 
Og, and dwell in their cities. Moab fears them and sends to Aram 
for a Seer to curse them. Judaic account of Balaam’s prophecy. 
The Israelites reach the foot of Mount Pisgah. (Numb. xvi, 1a, 2a, 
25-26, 27b-34; xx, 19-20, 241b-22; xxi, 1-4, 16-20, 25b-35; xxii, 3-4, 
5b, 5a, ¢, 6a, b, 41, 17- 18, 21b-36b, 39; xxii, 28-36; xxiv, 1-19, 25: 
XV 1-4.) 
Materials: Traditions and Folksongs as before. Possible records 
of incidents of their journeys. Quotations from “The Book of 
Jashar (the Upright)”, a collection of lyrics made either in the 
time of David or of Solomon. 


Then Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the son of Pallu the son 
of Reuben,* took men and rose up against Moses. And Moses sent to 
summon Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; and they said: We will 
not come up. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of 
a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, but 
thou wilt make thyself altogether a prince over us? Also thou hast 
not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given 
us possession of fields and vineyards. Wilt thou put out the eyes of 
these men? We will not come up. Then Moses was very wroth, and 
said to Yahweh: Respect not Thou their offering. Not one ass have I 
taken from them, neither have I hurt one of them. And Moses rose 
up and went unto Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel fol- 
lowed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying: Turn aside, 
I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing that 
is theirs, lest ye be carried away in all their sins. And Dathan and 
Abiram came out and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives 
and their sons, and their little ones. 

And Moses said: Hereby shall ye know that Yahweh hath sent me 
to do all these things, and that they are not of my devising. If these 
men die the common death of all men, or if the visitation of all men 
come upon them, then Yahweh hath not sent me. But if Yahweh make 
a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up 
and all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then 
ye shall know that these men have rejected Yahweh. 

And it came to pass as he finished speaking, that the ground under 
them was riven; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up them 
and their houses; they and all that belonged to them went down alive 
into Sheol, and the earth closed upon them. And they perished out of 
the midst of the congregation. And all Israel that were round about 
them fled at the cry of them, for they said: Lest the earth swallow us 
up alive also. 

Now the Children of Israel said unto the king of Edom: Let us 
pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will go by the highway; 
and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it; I ask 
nothing else than to pass through on foot. And he said: Thou shalt not 
pass through. And Edom came out against him with much people 

1 The rebellion of Korah and his 250 men, here omitted, is dextrously blended with that 
of the sons of Reuben in the received texts, but is a late interpolation of P. The one is 
based on the assumption by the Levites of superior authority; the other is directly opposed 


to the authority of Moses. It will be remembered that Reuben was the oldest son of 
Jacob (Israel), and Levi, only the third. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL ro 


and with a strong hand; wherefore Israel turned away from him. And 
the Children journeyed from Kadesh and came unto mount Hor. 

Now when the Canaanite king of Arad who dwelt in the Negeb heard 
that Israel was coming by way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, 
and took some of them captive. And Israel vowed a vow unto Yahweh, 
and said: If Thou wilt surely give this people into my hands, then will 
I utterly destroy their cities. And Yahweh hearkened to the voice of 
Israel and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them 
and their cities. And the name of the place was called Hormah (utter 
destruction). 

And they journeyed from mount Hor, by the way to the Red Sea, and 
they compassed the land of Edom. And from thence the Israelites jour- 
neyed to Beer (that is the well whereof Yahweh said unto Moses: 
Gather the people together, and I will give them water). Then sang 
Israel this song: 


Spring up, O well! Sing ye unto it! 
The well the princes sought out, 
And the nobles of the people did dig 

’ With a sceptre and with their staves. 


And thence they journeyed to Mattanah, and from Mattanah to Na- 
haliel and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, and from Bamoth to the valley that 
is in the field of Moab near the peak of Pisgah, which looketh down upon 
the desert. 

And Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and 
in all the environs thereof. For Heshbon was the capital city of Sihon, 
the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of 
Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand even to Arnon. Therefore 
do the poets say: 


Come to Heshbon! 


Rebuilt let it be. re-established be the city of Sihon. 
For fire went forth from Heshbon, flame from Sihon’s town. 
It consumed Ar of Moab, the chiefs of the high places of Arnon. 
Woe to thee, Moab! Lost art thou, people of Chemosh! 


His sons hath he made outcasts, his daughters, 
Captives to the Amorite king. 
Their rich fields are destroyed from Heshbon to Dibon 
We have laid them waste even to Nophah, which is even te Medeba. 


Then Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they took the towns thereof, 
and drave out the Amorites that were there. And they turned and went 
up by the way of Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan went out against 
them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. And Yahweh said unto 
Moses: Fear him not, for I have delivered him into thy hand, him and 
all his people and all his land; and thou shalt do unto him as thou 
didst unto Sihon,* the king of the Amorites who dwelt at Heshbon. So 
they smote him and his sons and all his people, until there were none 
remaining to him; and they possessed his land. 

Now Moab was filled with fear because of the Children of Israel. 
And Moab said unto the elders of Midian: Now will this multitude lick 
up all that is round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. 
And Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. He sent 
therefore to the land of the children of his people to summon Balaam 
the son of Beor, saying: Behold, a people has come out from Egypt; 

1The full account of the conflict with Sihon is given by E. It was sung with rapture 


by the populace, as is seen above, and D uses it as the starting-point for his great exposi- 
tion of the Law. 


74 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


lo, they cover the face of the earth, and they are abiding over against 
me. Come now, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are too 
mighty for me; peradventure I shall prevail, and we may smite them and 
drive them out of the land. 

So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the 
rewards of divination in their hands; and they came to Balaam, and 
spake unto him the words of Balak: Behold, a people has come out 
of Egypt which covereth the face of the earth; come now, curse me 
them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them and drive them 
out. For I will promote thee to very great honor, and whatsoever thou 
sayest unto me I will do. Come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this 
people. 

And Balaam answered the servants of Balak: If Balak would give 
me his house full of silver and gold, I can not go beyond the word of 
Yahweh, my God, to do less or more. And Balaam saddled his ass, and 
went. 

And God’s anger was kindled because he went. And the messenger 
of Yahweh took his stand in the way, as an adversary against him. 
Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. 
And the ass saw the messenger of Yahweh standing in the way, with 
his sword drawn in his hand; and the ass turned aside out of the way 
and went into the field. And Balaam smote the ass to turn her into 
the way. But the messenger of Yahweh stood in a path between the 
vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. And when 
the ass saw the messenger of. Yahweh, she thrust herself against the 
wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall; and he smote her 
again. And the messenger of Yahweh went farther and stood in a 
narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right hand or to 
the left. And when the ass saw the messenger of Yahweh, she lay down 
under Balaam; and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass 
with his staff. And Yahweh opened the mouth of the ass, and she 
said unto Balaam: What have I done unto thee that thou hast smitten 
me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass: Because thou 
hast mocked me; I would there were a sword in my hand, for now I 
would kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam: Am not I[ thine ass, 
upon which thou hast ridden all thy life unto this day? was I ever 
wont to do thus unto thee? And he said: Nay. 

Then Yahweh opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the messenger of 
Yahweh standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand. And 
he bowed down and prostrated himself on his face. And the messenger 
of Yahweh said unto him: Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these 
three times? Behold, I have come out to be thine adversary, because 
thy way is perverse before me. And the ass saw me and turned away 
from me these three times. Unless she had turned from me, surely now 
I would even have slain thee, and saved her alive. And Balaam said 
unto the messenger of Yahweh: I have sinned, for I knew not that 
thou wert standiing against me in the way. But now, if it displeases 
thee, I will get me back again. But the messenger of Yahweh said: Go! 
but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that shalt thou speak. 

Now when Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to 
meet him unto a city of Moab which is in the border of Arnon, which 
is in the utmost coast. And Balaam went with Balak, and they came to 
Kirjath-huzzoth. And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor, 
which looketh out towards the desert. And Balaam said unto Balak: 
Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and 
seven rams. And Balak did as Balaam said, and offered a bullock and 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 75 


a ram on every altar. And Balaam saw that it pleased Yahweh to bless 
Israel; and he went not as at other times to seek omens, but he turned 
his face towards the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes and 
saw Israel encamped according to their tribes; and the spirit of God 
came upon him; and he took up his parable and said: 


Balaam the son of Beor saith, and the man whose eyes are open saith; 
He saith who heareth the word of God, 
Who seeth the vision of the Almighty, 
Prostrate, but his eyes are open; 
How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! thy dwelling-places, O Israel! 
Like valleys are they extended wide, like gardens along a river; 
Like fragrant aloes by Yahweh planted, like cedars beside the waters. 
Water shall he pour from his buckets, and his seed into many waters. 
And his king shall be higher than Agag, 
And his kingdom shall be exalted. 
God, who bringeth him forth from Egypt is for him 
As the strength of the wild ox. 
He shall eat up nations, his oppressors, their bones shall he crush, 
His arrows shall pierce them. 
He couched, he lay down as a lion, and like a lioness, 
Who shall arouse him? 
Blessed be he that blesseth thee, and cursed be he that curseth thee. 


Then was Balak’s anger kindled against Balaam, and he smote his 
hands together, and Balak said unto Balaam: I summoned thee to curse 
mine enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them. There- 
fore now, flee thee to thy place. I thought to promote thee to great 
honor; but lo, Yahweh hath kept thee back from honor. And Balaam 
said unto Balak: Spake I not unto thy messengers whom thou didst 
send unto me, saying: If Balak should give me his house full of silver 
and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of Yahweh to do either bad or 
good of mine own will? What Yahweh speaketh, that will I speak. 
And now, behold, I go to mine own people; come, I will advertise thee 
what this people shall do unto thy people in days to come. 

And he took up his parable, and said: 


Balaam the son of Beor saith, and the man whose eyes are open saith; 
He saith who heareth the word of God, 
And knoweth the knowledge of the Most High. 
Who seeth the vision of the Almighty, 
Prostrate, but having his eyes open. 

I shall see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh! 
A star shall come forth out of Jacob, 
And a sceptre shall arise out of Israel, 
And shall smite the borders of Moab 
And destroy all the sons of tumult. 

And Edom shall be a possession, and Seir, 

His enemies shall be a possession. 

Israel shall do deeds of valor; from Jacob one shall rule. 
And destroy the remnant from the city. 

And Balaam rose up and returned to his place; and Balak also went 
his way. 

Now Israel abode in Shittim, and began to commit whoredom with 
the daughters of Moab. For these called the people to the sacrifices 
of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 
Thus did Israel join himself unto the Baal of Peor, and the anger of 
Yahweh was kindled against Israel. And Yahweh said unto Moses: 
Take all the leaders of the people, and execute them unto Yahweh in 


the face of the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away 
from Israel. 


CHAPTER III. 


THE ADVANCE INTO CANAAN AND THE SETTLEMENTS 
OF THE TRIBES 


SECTION I.—Joshua becomes the leader. Sends out spies to study the 
situation of Jericho and its defenses. They lodge with Rahab and 
bring back a favorable report. The solemn Crossing of the Jordan. 
Circumcision of the male children born since the departure from 
Egypt. The encampment at Gilgal. The advance upon Jericho. 
The fall of Jericho. The taking of Ai. The treaty with the 
Gibeonites. (Joshua, i, 1-2a; ii, 1, 4a, 6b, 2, 3b, 4b-5, 8-9, 12, 14, 18, 
AO eA en, aes rie 8-10a, 13-47; iv, es 8, 20: V, 2:3, 8-9, 13-19; 
Vi, 9-3, Ff ahd pies UUs BP 1 4- 16a, 16c- 5 UF 20a, eis 25- PEL AYE 9-26: Vili, fa, 
3-10, 14, 157 16h, 17b, 19a, c 24-2 22, 23, 29; ix, 3-6b, 12-43a, 16, 
99-234,) 

Materials: Oral traditions. Possible records of the priests. The 
“Book of Jashar”. 


Now it came to pass after:the death of Moses, the servant of Yahweh, 
that Yahweh spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’s minister, say- 
ing: Moses, My servant is dead; now, therefore, arise, go over this 
Jordan, thou and all thy people. Then Joshua the son of Nun sent out 
of Shittim two spies secretly, saying: Go, view the land and Jericho. 
And they went and came to the house of a harlot whose name was 
Rahab, and lay there. And the woman took the two men and hid them 
among the stalks of flax which she had spread out upon the roof. 

Now it was told the king of Jericho: Behold, there came men in 
hither to-night of the Children of Israel to search out the land. And 
the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying: Bring forth the men that 
are come to thee. And she said: Yea, the men came to me; but it 
came to pass when it was dark the men went out; whither the men 
went I know not. Pursue them quickly, and ye will overtake them. And 
the men pursued them by the way to the Jordan. And before they were 
laid down, she came up to the men on the roof, and said: [ know that 
Yahweh hath given you the land, and fear of you hath fallen upon us, 
for all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. Now, there- 
fore, I pray you, swear unto me by Yahweh, since I have dealt kindly 
with you, that ye also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and 
give me a true token. And the men said unto her: Our life for yours; 
if ye tell not this our business, it shall be, that when Yahweh giveth 
us this land, we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Behold, when 
we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in 
the window; and thou shalt gather unto thee into the house thy father 
and thy mother and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household. And 
it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into 
the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless; 
and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our 


76 


Seats of 


THE TWELVE TRIBES 
Before David's Reign 








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THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 77 


head if any hand be on him. And she said: according unto your yords, 
so be it. And she sent them away; and they departed, and she bound 
the scarlet line in the window. ‘Then the men returned and said to 
Joshua: ‘Truly Yahweh hath delivered into our hands all the land; 
and, moreover, all the inhabitants of the land do melt away before us. 

Then Joshua rose up early in the morning, and he and all the people 
of Israel removed from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and lodged 
there before they passed over. And Joshua spake unto the priests, 
saying: Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the 
people. And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before 
the people. And Yahweh said unto Joshua: Thou shalt command the 
priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying: When ye come to 
the brink of the waters of the Jordan, ye shall stand still in the Jordan. 
And Joshua said unto the Children of Israel: Come hither and hear 
the words of Yahweh your God. And Joshua said: Hereby ye shall 
know that the living God is among you. Behold, the ark of the covenant 
of Yahweh passeth on before you, over the Jordan. And it shall come to 
pass, when the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of 
Yahweh shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the 
Jordan shall be cut off, even the waters that come down from above, 
and they shall stand in one heap. And it came to pass, when the people 
removed from their tents to pass over the Jordan, the priests that bore 
the ark of the covenant being before the people, and when they that bore 
the ark were come unto the Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore 
the ark were dipped in the brink of the water,—for the Jordan over- 
floweth all its banks all the time of harvest—that the waters which 
came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way 
off from Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went 
down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut 
off; and the people passed over right opposite Jericho. And the priests 
that bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firm on dry ground 
in the midst of the Jordan, while all Israel passed over, until all the 
nation had passed clean over the Jordan. 

And it came to pass, when all the people were passed over Jordan, 
that Yahweh spake unto Joshua, saying: Take you twelve men out of 
the people, out of every tribe a man, and command them, saying: Take 
you hence out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the 
priests’ feet stood, twelve stones made ready, and carry them over with 
you and lay them down in the lodging-place where ye shall lodge this 
night. 

And the Children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up 
twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as Yahweh spake unto 
Joshua, according unto the number of the tribes of the Children of 
Israel; and they carried them over with them unto the place where 
they lodged, and they laid them down there. And those twelve stones 
which they took out of the Jordan did Joshua set up in Gilgal. 

At that time, Yahweh said unto Joshua: Make thee knives of flint, 
and circumcise the Children of Israel. And Joshua made him knives 
of flint, and circumcised the Children of Israel at Gibeah-ha-Araloth 
(the Hill of the Foreskins). And it came to pass, when all the nation 
was circumcised, every one of them, that they abode in their places 
in the camp until they were whole. And Yahweh said unto Joshua: 
This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Where- 
fore the name of that place was called Gilgal (rolling), to this day. 

And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up 


78 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him 
with his sword drawn in his hand; and Joshua went unto him and said 
unto him: Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said: 
Nay, but as leader of the host of Yahweh am I now come. And Joshua 
fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said unto him: What 
saith my lord unto his servant? And the leader of Yahweh’s host said 
unto Joshua: Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon 
thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. And Yahweh said unto 
Joshua: See, I have given into thy hand Jericho and the king thereof, 
even the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city, all the men 
of war, going around the city once. This shalt thou do six days. And 
the seventh day the people shall go up, every man straight before him. 
And he said unto the people: Pass on and compass the city, and let 
the armed men pass on before the ark of Yahweh. And Joshua com- 
manded the people, saying: Ye shall not shout, nor let your voice be 
heard, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day 
I bid you shout; fhen shall ye shout. So he caused the ark of Yahweh 
to compass the city going about it once; and they came into the camp, 
and lodged in the camp. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, 
and the priests took up the ark of Yahweh. And the second day they 
compassed the city once, and returned into the camp. Thus they did 
six days. 

And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early at the 
dawning of the day and compassed the city after the same manner 
seven times. Only on that day did they compass the city seven times. 
And it came to pass at the seventh time that Joshua said unto the 
people: Shout! for Yahweh hath given you the city! And the city 
shall be devoted, even it and all that is therein, to Yahweh; only Rahab 
the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because 
she hid the messengers that we sent. So the people shouted with a 
great shout and went up into the city, every man straight before him, 
and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in 
the city, both men and women, both young and old, and ox and sheep 
and ass, with the edge of the sword. But Rahab the harlot, and her 
father’s household, and all that she had, did Joshua save alive; and 
she dwelt in the midst of Israel unto this day, because she hid the 
messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 

And Joshua charged the people with an oath at that time, saying: 


Cursed before Yahweh be the man _ that riseth to build up this city. 
With the loss of his first-born son shall he lay foundation thereof; 
And with the loss of his youngest son _ shall he set up its gates. 


So Yahweh was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. 

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Aven 
on the east of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying: Go up and spy out 
the land. And the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned 
to Joshua, and said unto him: Let not all the people go up; but let 
two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; make not all the 
people go up, for they are but few. So there went up thither of the 
people about three thousand men; and they fled before the men of Ai. 
And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty-six men; and they chased 
them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them at 
the descent. And Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his 
face before the ark of Yahweh until the evening, he and the elders 
of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said: Alas, 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 79 


O God Yahweh! wherefore hast Thou brought this people at all over 
the Jordan? Would that we had been content, and dwelled beyond the 
Jordan! O Yahweh! what shall I say, after that Israel hath turned 
their backs before their enemies? For when the Canaanites hear of it, 
they will compass us round and cut off our name from the earth; and 
what wilt Thou do for Thy great name?’ 

But Yahweh said unto Joshua: Get thee up! wherefore now art 
thou fallen upon thy face? Israel hath sinned; yea, they have even taken 
of the devoted thing, and have stolen and dissembled also, and they 
have even put it among their own stuff. Therefore the Children of 
Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs upon 
their enemies because they are accursed. I will not be with you any 
more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. Up! Sanctify 
the people, and say: Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow; for thus 
saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: There is a curse in the midst of you, 
O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away 
the accursed thing from among you. In the morning, therefore, ye 
shall draw near by your tribes; and the tribe which Yahweh taketh 
shall come near by families; and the family which Yahweh shall take 
shall come near by households; and the household which Yahweh shall 
take shall come near man by man. And it shall be, that he that is taken 
with the devoted thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath. 

So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel near 
by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. And he brought near 
the families of Judah, and He took the family of the Zerahites; and he 
brought near the family of the Zerahites, man by man, and Zabdi was 
taken; and he brought near his household, man by man, and Achan 
was taken. And Joshua said unto Achan: My son, give, I pray thee, 
glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and make conféssion unto Him; and 
tell me now what thou hast done; hide nothing from me. And Achan 
answered Joshua and said: Of a truth, I have sinned against Yahweh, 
the God of Israel; thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the 
spoil a goodly Shinar mantle, and two hundred shekels of silver, and 
a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took 
them; and behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, 
and the silver under it. So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran into 
the tent; and behold, it was hid in the tent, and the silver under it. 
And they took them forth from the midst of the tent and brought them 
to Joshua, and unto all the Children of Israel; and they laid them 
down before Yahweh. And Joshua took Achan the son of Zerah and all 
that he had, and they brought them up unto the valley of Achor. And 
Joshua said: Why hast thou troubled us? Yahweh shall trouble thee 
this day; and they burned them with fire. And they raised over him 
a great heap of stones; and Yahweh turned away from the fierceness of 
His anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called The Valley 
of Achor (troubling) unto this day. 

And Yahweh said unto Joshua: Fear not, neither be thou dismayed; 
take all the men of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai. So Joshua 
arose and all the men of war, to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose out thirty 
thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night; 
and he commanded them, saying: Behold, ye shall lie in ambush against 
the city, behind the city; be ye not very far from the city, but be ye 
all ready. And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach 


1 With the exception of a repetition or two and some slight additions by a late writer, 
the account of the first assault upon Ai seems to be wholly from the Judaic author. 


80 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


unto the city; and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, 
we will flee before them as at the first. And they will come out after 
us until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say: 
They flee before us as at the first. So we will flee before them. And 
ye shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city; for 
Yahweh, your God will deliver it into your hand. And it shall be, when 
ye have seized upon the city, that ye shall set the city on fire; see, I 
have commanded you. And Joshua sent them forth, and they went to 
the place of ambush, between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but 
Joshua lodged that night among the people. 

And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, 
and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. And 
it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city 
hastened and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people to 
a certain place fronting the Arabah; but he knew not that there was an 
ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and his people fled 
by the way of the wilderness; and they pursued after Joshua, and were 
drawn away from the city. And they left the city open and pursued 
after Israel. 

Then the men in ambush rose quickly out of their place, and they 
hastened and set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked 
behind them, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven; and 
they had no power to flee this way or that way, for the people that 
were fleeing to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers, and they 
slew the men of Ai. And the.others came forth out of the city against 
them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, some on 
that side; and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain 
or escape. And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to 
Joshua. And Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree until eventide; 
and at the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took his 
body down from the tree and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the 
city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones [which is] there to 
this day. ' 

Now when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done 
unto Jericho and Ai, they did work wilily, and went and took old sacks 
upon their asses and wineskins worn and rent and patched, and worn 
shoes and clouted upon their feet and worn garments upon their 
backs; and all the bread of their provisions was dry and become crumbs. 
And they went to the men of Israel and said: We are come from 
a far country; now therefore, make ye a covenant with us. And the 
men of Israel said: Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall 
we make a covenant with you? And they said: This our bread we took 
hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to 
go unto you; behold it is dry and is become crumbs; and these wine- 
skins, which we filled, were new; and behold, they are rent. And these 
our garments and our shoes are worn by reason of the very long 
journey. Then the men took of their provision and asked not counsel 
at the mouth of Yahweh, but made a covenant with them, to let them 
live. 

And it came to pass at the end of three days, after they had made a 
covenant with them, that they heard they were their neighbors, and 
that they dwelt among them. And Joshua called for them and he spake 
unto them, saying: Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are 
very far from you, when ye dwell among us? Now, therefore, ye are 
cursed; and there shall never fail to be of you bondmen. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 81 


SECTION II.—Joshua’s Conquests in the North. He assigns the lots of 
Judah and of the children of Joseph. Urges the other tribes to ex- 
plore and divide the rest of the land among themselves, and bring 
them to him at Shiloh for confirmation. Receives for himself the 
city of Timnath-Serah, and dwells there. (Joshua, x, 1a, c, 2-7, 9-10, 
ian. C-1da, 10-24, 20-27, Kip 1s 2a, a1, 08,0, :9;. Xill, 1,-7; XV, 3-13; Xv, 
1-2, 5, 12a; xvi, 1°3, 9-10; xvii, 1b-2a, 5, 9-10; xviii, 14, 2-6, 8-10; xix, 
9, 47, 49-50.) 

Materials: No more certain than before; but it is evident that the 
body of traditions was large from which later writers culled impor- 
tant items. The “Book of Jashar” is again quoted from. 


Now it came to pass when Adoni-Zedek, king of Jersualem, heard how 
Joshua had taken Ai and utterly destroyed it, and how the inhabitants 
of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, that he 
feared greatly; because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, 
and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were 
mighty. Wherefore Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent unto Hoham, 
king of Hebron, and unto Piram, king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia, king 
of Lachish, and unto Debir,: king of Eglon, saying: Come up unto me 
and help me, and let us smite Gibeon, for it hath made peace with 
Joshua and with the Children of Israel. Therefore these five kings 
gathered themselves together and went up, they and all their hosts, 
and encamped against Gibeon and made war against it. And the men 
of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, saying: Slack not 
thy hands from thy servants; come up to us quickly and help us and 
save us; for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill-country 
are gathered together against us. So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he 
and all the people of war with him, all the mighty men of valor. And 
Joshua came upon them suddenly, for he went up from Gilgal by night. 
And Yahweh discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a 
great slaughter at Gibeon; and they chased them by the way of the 
ascent of Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah and unto Makkedah. 

Then spake Joshua to Yahweh; and he said in the presence of Israel: 


Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, 

And thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon! 
Then the sun stood still, and the moon stayed 
Until the nation had taken vengeance upon its foes. 


(Is not this written in the Book of Jashar?) So the sun stayed in the 
midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down for a whole day. And 
there was no day like that before it or after it, that Yahweh hearkened 
to the voice of a man; for Yahweh fought for Israel. 

Now it was told Joshua: The five kings are found hidden in the 
cave at Makkedah. And Joshua said: Roll great stones to the mouth 
of the cave, and set men by it to keep them; but stay not ye; pursue 
after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them. Suffer them 
not to enter into their cities, for Yahweh hath delivered them into your 
hand. And it came to pass, when Joshua and the Children of Israel had 
made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter till they 
were consumed, and the remnant which remained of them had entered 
the fortified cities, that all the people returned to the camp to Joshua 
at Makkedah in peace,—none whetted his tongue against any of the 
Children of Israel. Then said Joshua: Open the mouth of the cave, 
and bring forth those five kings unto me out of the cave, the king of 
Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, 
the king of Eglon. And it came to pass, when they brought forth these 


82 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and 
said unto the chiefs of the men of war that went with him: Come 
near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near 
and put their feet upon the necks of them. And afterward, Joshua 
smote them and put them to death, and hanged them on five trees; 
and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening. And it came 
to pass, at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua com- 
manded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into 
the cave wherein they had hidden themselves, and laid great stones on 
the mouth of the cave. And they are there to this day. 

And it came to pass when Jabin, king of Hazor heard thereof, that 
he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the 
king of Achashaph, and to the kings that were in the north in the 
hill-country, to the Canaanite on the east and on the west and the 
Hivite under Hermon; and they went out, they and all their hosts with 
them, much people, even as the sands upon the seashore in multitude, 
with horses and chariots very many. And all these kings met together; 
and they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom to fight with 
Israel. And Yahweh said unto Joshua: Be not afraid of them; to- 
morrow thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. 
So Joshua came and all fhe people of war with him, and fell upon them 
suddenly by the waters of Merom; and they smote them until they left 
them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as Yahweh bade 
him; he houghed their horses and burned their chariots with fire. 


Now Joshua was old, well-stricken in years; and Yahweh said unto 
him: Thou art old and well-stricken in years, and there remaineth 
very much land to be possessed. Now therefore, divide this land for an 
inheritance unto the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.t 

[For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes Reuben and 
Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh beyond the Jordan; but unto the 
Levites he gave no inheritance. For the children of Joseph were two 
tribes, Manasseh and Eprhaim. And they gave no portion unto the 
Levites in the land, savé cities to dwell in, with the open land about 
them for their cattle and their sustenance.’] 

Then the children of Judah drew nigh unto Joshua in Gilgal; and 
Caleb the Kenite said unto him: Thou knowest the thing that Yahweh 
spake unto Moses, the Man of God, concerning thee and concerning me 
in Kadesh-Barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of 
Yahweh sent me up from Kadesh-Barnea to spy out the land; and I 
brought him back word as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren 
that went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly 
followed Yahweh my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying: Surely 
the land whereon thy foot hath trodden shall be an inheritance to thee 
and to thy children forever, because thou hast wholly followed Yahweh 
thy God. And now, behold, Yahweh hath kept me alive these forty and 
five years while Israel walked in the wilderness; and now, lo, I am this 
day fourscore and five years old. And yet I am as strong this day as 
I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even 
so is my strength now for war, and to go out and to come in. Now 
therefore, give me this mountain whereof Yahweh spake in that day; 
for thou didst hear in that day how the Anakim were there, and cities 

1 Chapters xiii-xxiii are mainly from D2 and P. In the few passages from JE, but 
a small portion can be distinguished as from E, and this so insignificant that it is not worth 
while to separate them. 


2Ch. xiv, 3-5, are by P, but are retained here for the sake of clearness concerning the 
allotments for all the tribes. Compare also Numb, xxxiv, 13-15, and xxxv, 2, 6-7. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 83 


great and fortified; it may be that Yahweh will be with me, and I shall 
drive them out, as Yahweh spake. 

And Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron unto Caleb, the son of 
Jephunneh the Kenite, for an inheritance, for a portion among the 
children of Judah. 

Now the lot for the tribe of Judah according to its families was 
unto the borders of Edom, even to the wilderness of Zin southward, at 
the uttermost part of the south. And their southern border was from 
the uttermost part of the Salt Sea, and it went out at the Brook of Egypt, 
and its goings out were at the sea. And the east border was the Salt 
Sea even unto the end of the Jordan. And the border of the north 
side was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan; and as for 
the west border, the Great Sea was the border thereof. 

And the lot for the children of Joseph went out from the Jordan 
at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east going up through the 
hill-country to the wilderness even to Bethel. And it went out from 
Bethel-Luz, and passed unto the border of the Archites to Ataroth. And 
it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites unto the border 
of Beth-horon the nether, even unto Gezer; and the goings out thereof 
were at the Great Sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the 
children of Ephraim according to their families; together with the cities 
separated for the children of Ephraim in the midst of the inheritance 
of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages. And they 
drove not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites 
dwell in the midst of Ephraim unto this day, and became servants to 
do task-work. 

As for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because 
he was a man of war therefore he had Gilead and Bashan. And the lot 
was for the rest of the children of Manasseh according to their families. 
And there fell ten parts to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and 
Bashan which are beyond the Jordan. But Tappuah, on the border of 
Manasseh, belonged to the children of Ephraim. And the border went 
down unto the brook of Kanah; but the border of Manasseh was on the 
north side of the brook; southward it was Ephraim’s, and northward 
it was Manasseh’s; and the sea was his border; and they reached to 
Asher on the north, and to Issachar on the east. 

And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which 
had not yet received their inheritance. And Joshua said unto the Chil- 
dren of Israel: How long are ye slack to go in and possess the land 
which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, hath given you? Appoint for 
you three men for each tribe, and I will send them; and they shall arise 
and walk through the land and describe (write) it according to their 
inheritance; and they shall come unto me. And they shall divide it 
into seven portions; Judah shall abide within his border on the south, 
and the house of Joseph shall abide in their border on the north. And 
ye shall write of the land in seven portions, and bring the writing 
hither to me; and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh. And 
the men arose and went; and Joshua charged them that went to write 
of the land: Go and walk through the land and describe it, and come 
back to me and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh in Shiloh.* 
And the men went and passed through the land and described it in 
seven divisions in a book; and they came to Joshua unto the camp at 
Shiloh. And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before Yahweh; and 

1Verse 1, as prefixed by P, indicates that the ark had been removed to Shiloh, its 


first permanent resting-place, where it remained till the death of Eli. Samuel the Seer 
spent his childhood and youth there, 


84 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


there Joshua divided the land unto the Children of Israel according 
to their divisions. Out of the allotment of the children of Judah was 
the inheritance of Simeon; for the portion of the children of Judah was 
too much for them, therefore the children of Simeon had inheritance 
in the midst of their inheritance. And the territory of the children of 
Dan was too strait for them; so the children of Dan went up and fought 
against Leshem and took it; and they smote it with the edge of the 
sword and possessed it and dwelt therein; and they called Leshem, Dan, 
after the name of Dan their father. 

When they had made an end of distributing the land for inheritance 
by the borders thereof, the Children of Israel gave an Inheritance to 
Joshua the son of Nun in the midst of them; according to the com- 
mandment of Yahweh, they gave him the city which he asked, even 
Timnath-serah in the hill-country of Ephraim; and he built the city 
and dwelt therein. 


SrecTION III].—Judah and Simeon win their allotments. Othniel, son-in- 

law of Caleb, governs the southeast. Repels the Arameans. The 
other tribes make terms with the earlier inhabitants of Canaan. 
Having disobeyed the laws of Yahweh, they are subjugated by their 
neighbors. Ehud delivers them from the Moabites. Deborah and 
Barak overthrow the Canaanites. These force the Danites out of 
their western allotment, and they move to the far north. Gideon 
frees Central Canaan from the annual raids of the Midianites 
(Bedouin). (Judges, i, 1-3, 5-7, 44a, 12-17, 19-36; ii, 1a, 5b, 25a; iii, 
5-44, 16-274, 28-30; iv, 4a,2a, 3b, 4, 6a, 7b, 23; v, 4-37; xvii, dei. 
XViil, 1-30a; vi, 1, 6b, 14-19, 21a, 22-24, 34; vil, 1, 9-174, 20-21 ava, 
4-9, 10a, 11-21, 24-28.) 
Materials: Current songs and stories; the “Book of Jashar”; prob- 
ably, some tribal records, for a writer of the seventh century (Dz) 
adds many undisputed details. His additions, when necessary to 
the sequence of events, are here put in parentheses. 


Now it came to pass (after the death of Joshua) that the children of 
Judah asked of Yahweh: Who shall go up first against the Canaanites 
to fight against them? And Yahweh answered them: Judah shall go 
up; I will give the land into his hand. And the tribe of Judah said to 
their brethren the Simeonites: Come up with us into our lot that we 
may fight against the Canaanites; then we will go up with you into 
your lot. So the Simeonites went with them. And they came upon 
Adoni-bezek in Bezek and they fought against him, and they defeated 
the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pur- 
sued after him and took him and cut off his thumbs and great toes. And 
Adoni-Bezek said: Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs 
and great toes cut off, used to pick up food under my. table. As I have 
done, so God hath requited me. Then they went up against the in- 
habitants of Debir. (Now the older name of Debir was Kirjah-sepher.) 
And Caleb said: He that attacketh Debir and taketh it, to him will I 
give Achsah my daughter to wife. And Othniel, the son of Kenaz the 
younger brother of Caleb, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter 
to wife. And it came to pass when she came to him, that she moved 
him to ask her father for a piece of land. So she alighted from her 
ass; and Caleb said unto her: What wouldest thou? and she said: 
Give me a blessing; thou hast put me off in the Negeb, therefore give 
me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the Upper Springs and 
the Lower Springs. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 85 


Now the children of the Kenite, Moses’s father-in-law, went up with 
the children of Judah out of the City of Palm-trees to the wilderness 
which is in the south of Arad, and dwelt with the Amalekites. Then 
the tribe of Judah went with their brethren the Simeonites, and they 
smote the Canaanites which dwelt in Zephath and utterly destroyed it. 
Hence the city was called Hormah. And Yahweh was with Judah; and 
they conquered the hill-country, but could not drive out the inhab- 
itants of the plain because they had chariots of iron. And they gave 
Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses had bidden, and Caleb drove therefrom the 
three giants, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai. But the Judahites did not 
dispossess the Jebusites which inhabited Jerusalem; for the Jebusites 
dwelt with the Judahites in Jerusalem unto this day. 

And the tribes of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel; and 
Yahweh was with them. And the house of Joseph sent to spy out 
Bethel; and the scouts saw a man coming out of the city, and they 
said to him: show us, we pray thee, how to enter the city, and we will 
deal kindly with thee. And he showed them the entrance to the city, 
and they smote the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the 
man go and all his family; and they went into the land of the Hittites 
and built a city and called its name Luz, which is the name thereof 
unto this day. 

Manasseh did not cénquer Beth-shean with the villages belonging 
thereto, nor Taanach with its villages, nor the inhabitants of Dor nor 
of Ibleam with their villages, nor of Megiddo with its villages; for the 
~Canaanites maintained themselves resolutely in that region. But it came 
to pass that when Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to 
taskwork, but did by no means cast them out. Nor did Ephraim dis- 
possess the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites remained 
in Gezer in the midst of them. 

Zebulon drove not out the inhabitants of Kitron nor of Nahaloi; 
but the Canaanites dwelt in the midst of them and became tributary. 
Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Accho nor of Zidon, nor of 
Helbah nor of Aphik nor of Rehob; but the Asherites settled among the 
Canaanites, for they did not dispossess them. Naphtali drove not out 
the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh nor of Beth-anath; he dwelt among 
the Canaanite inhabitants of the land; nevertheless they became tribu- 
tary to him. The Amorites forced the Danites into the hill-country; 
they would not suffer them to come down to the valley, but maintained 
themselves resolutely in Har-heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim; yet 
the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became tribu- 
tary. And the border of the Amorites was the pass of Akrabbim, from 
Sela and upward. And the Messenger of Yahweh came up from Gilgal 
to Bethel, and they offered sacrifice there to Yahweh. 

So Yahweh left these peoples, not dispossessing them at once. And 
the Israelites dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, 
the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; and they took their daugh- 
ters to be their wives and gave their own daughters to their sons; and 
they served their gods. 

(And the Children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of 
Yahweh, and forgat Yahweh their God, and worshipped the Baalim and 
the Asheroth. Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against 
Israel, and He gave them over into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim, king 
of Aram-Naharaim; and the Israelites served him eight years. Then the 
Israelites cried to Yahweh for help, and Yahweh raised up a saviour for 
Israel, even Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. And his 


86 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim; and the land had rest forty 
years. And after Othniel died, the Israelites again did evil in the sight 
of Yahweh; and Eglon, king of Moab, gathered unto him the children of 
Ammon and of Amalek, and he went and smote Israel, and took pos- 
session of the City of Palm-trees. And the Israelites served Eglon 
eighteen years. Then the Israelites cried unto Yahweh for help; and 
He raised up for them another saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, a Ben- 
jamite, a man left-handed, by whom the Israelites sent their tribute to 
the king of Moab.) 

And Ehud made him a two-edged dagger, the length of a cubit; and 
he girded it under his raiment on his right thigh. And he offered the 
tribute unto Eglon, king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And 
when Ehud had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away the 
people that had borne it. But he himself turned back at the quarries 
that were at Gilgal, and said: I have a secret errand unto thee, O King. 
Then the king said: Silence! And all that stood by him went forth 
from him. And Ehud came up to him, and he was sitting by himself 
in his cool upper chamber. And Ehud said unto him: I have a divine 
message unto thee. And he arose from his seat. And Ehud put forth 
his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it 
into his belly. And the haft also went in after the blade, and the fat 
closed upon the blade, for he drew not the sword out of his belly, and 
it came out behind. Then Ehud went forth into the porch and closed 
the doors of the upper chamber upon him, and locked them. Now when 
he was gone out the servants came; and they saw that the doors of 
the upper chamber were locked, and they said: Surely he is covering 
his feet in the cabinet of the cool chamber. And they tarried until they 
were ashamed, for, behold, he opened not the doors of the upper chamber; 
therefore they took the key and opened them; and behold, their lord was 
fallen down dead on the ground. But Ehud made his escape while they 
were waiting, and having passed the quarries escaped unto Seirah. And 
it came to pass when he was come, that he blew a horn in the hill-country 
of Ephraim, and said: Follow me, for Yahweh hath delivered your 
enemies, the Moabites, into your hand. And they went down after him 
and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and suffered not 
a man to pass over. (Thus Moab was subdued that day and brought 
under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years.) 

The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh, 

(And the Israelites again did evil in the sight of Yahweh, and He 
sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who mightily op- 
pressed the Children of Israel twenty years. Now a prophetess, Deborah 
the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time; and she summoned 
Barak and the Israelites to battle against Jabin; and Yahweh enabled 
the Israelites to subdue Jabin, king of Canaan.) 


Then sang Deborah with Barak the son of Abinoam on that day: 


For the taking of the lead by the chieftains of Israel; 
For the volunteering of the people, bless ye Yahweh! 


Hear, O ye kings! Give ear, O ye princes! 
I to Yahweh will address my song 
I will sing praise to Yahweh, the Gili of Israel. 


Yahweh, when Thou didst go forth out of Seir, 
When Thou didst march out of the fields of Edom, 

The earth trembled, the heavens dropped, yea the clouds dropped water. 
The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh, 

Even yon Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 87 


In the days of Shamgar ben-Anath, in the days of Jael, highways ceased, 
And solitary travelers took roundabout ways. 
Rulers ceased in Israel, yea they ceased 
Till thou didst arise, O Deborah, till thou didst arise, a mother in Israel. 


They chose them new gods; then was war in the gates. 
Was any spear seen, or even a shield 
Among forty thousand in Israel? 
My heart is with the rulers of Israel! 
Ya volnnteers among the people, bless ye Yahweh! 
Ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit on rich cloths, 
And ye that walk by the way, tell of it! 
poder at the voice of them that divide booty beside the watering- 
roughs, 
There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of Yahweh, 
Even the righteous acts of His rulers in Israel 
When the people of Yahweh marched down to the gates. 


Awake, awake, Deborah! 
Awake, awake, utter a song! 
Arise, Barak, and lead thy captives captive, 
Thou son of Abinoam! 
Then made He a remnant to have dominion over a people. 
Yahweh made me have dominion over the mighty. 


Out of Ephraim came those whose root is in Amalek; 
After thee, Benjamin, among thy peoples; 
Out of Machir came down governors, out of Zebulon, those who wield 
the marshal’s staff. 
And the chiefs of Issachar were with Deborah; 
As was Issachar, so was Barak. 
Into the valley they rushed down on foot. 


Great were the dissensions in the divisions of Reuben. 

Why sattest thou among the sheepfolds listening to the pipings of flocks? 
At the divisions of Reuben were great searchings of heart! 
Gilead abode beyond the Jordan; 
And Dan, why did he sojourn by the ships? 
Asher tarrieth on the shore of the Sea, 
Sitting still by his places of landing. 

But ae uon and Naphtali were tribes that jeoparded their lives to the 
eath, 
Upon the heights of the battlefield. 


The kings came, they fought; 

Then fought the kings of Canaan, 

In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; 

They took no gain of money! 

Heaven itself fought, 

The stars of heaven fought against Sisera. 

The brook Kishon swept them away, 

That ancient stream, the stream of Kishon. 
O my soul! Tread them down with strength! 

Then stamped the hoofs of his horses 

In the furious galloping of his warriors. 


Curse ye Meroz, said the messenger of Yahweh, 
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, 
Because they came not to the help of Yahweh 
To the help of Yahweh against the mighty. 


88 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Blessed above women shall Jael be 
The wife of Heber the Kenite! 

Above all women in tents shall she be blessed. 

Water he asked, she gave him milk; 

In a noble bowl she brought him curds. 
Her hand she put to the tent-pin, her right hand to the workman’s mallet. 
She eye Sisera, she crusheth his head; yea, she shatters, pierces his 

emples. 
At her feet he sank, he fell, he lay 
Where he sank, where he fell, ee he lay down, dead. 


Through the window peered and called aloud 

The mother of Sisera, through the lattice: 
Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his 

chariot? 

The wisest of her princesses reply, 

Yea, she returneth answer to herself: 
They must be finding, dividing the spoil, a damsel or two to every man; 
To Sisera a spoil of dyed garments, a spoil of embroidered garments, 

A piece or two of embroidery for the neck of every spoiler! 


So perish all thine enemies, O Yahweh! 
But be Thy friends as the sun, when he goeth forth in his might. 


Now ‘there was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, whose name 
was Micah; and the man Micah had a little temple; and he made an 
ephod and teraphim and consecrated one of his sons who became his 
priest. And there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah who was a 
Levite, and sojourned there. And this man departed out of the city of 
Bethlehem to sojourn wherever he might find a place; and he came 
to the hill-country of Ephraim, and as he journeyed he came to the 
house of Micah. And Micah said unto him: Dwell with me, and be 
unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten pieces of silver 
by the year and a suit of apparel and thy victuals. So the Levite went 
in. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young 
man was unto him as one of his sons. And Micah consecrated the Levite; 
and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 
Then said Micah: Now know I that Yahweh will do me good, seeing 
I have a Levite as my priest. 

Now in those days, the Danites were seeking a possession to dwell 
in; for unto that day there had nothing been allotted unto them among 
the tribes of Israel for their dwelling; and the children of Dan sent five 
men from the whole number of their families, men of valor from Zorah 
and from Eshtaol, to explore the land and to examine it; and they said 
unto them: Go, search the land. And they came to the hill-country of 
Ephraim, unto the house of Micah, and lodged there. And they said to 
the Levite: What art thou here for? And he answered: The man 
hired me, and I have become his priest. And they said unto him: Ask 
counsel of God, we pray thee, that we may know whether our way on 
which we are going shall be prosperous. And the priest said unto them: 
Go in peace; your way wherein ye go is before Yahweh. Then the five 
men departed and came to Laish, and found the people dwelling in the 
city quiet and secure; for there was none in the land possessing author- 
ity that could put them to shame in any thing, and they were far from 
the Zidonians, and had no dealings with any others. Then they returned 
to Zorah and Eshtaol, and said: Arise, let us march against [Laish]; 
when ye go, ye shall find a people secure; and the land is large, a place 
wherein there is nothing lacking; it hath everything that is in the 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 89 


earth. Then there set forth from thence, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, 
six hundred men girt with weapons of war. And they went up and 
encamped in Kirjath-jearim in Judah; wherefore it is called Mahaneh- 
Dan to this day. And they passed thence to the hill-country of Ephraim, 
and came to the house of Micah. And the five men that had explored 
the land said unto their brethren: Do ye know that in these houses is 
an ephod and Teraphim? Now consider what ye will do. And the six 
hundred armed men came to Micah’s house and took the ephod and the 
Teraphim; and when the priest said unto them: What do ye? they said 
unto him: Hold thy peace; lay thy hand upon thy mouth and go with 
us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for thee to be a 
priest unto the household of one man, or to be priest unto a tribe and 
a family in Israel? And the priest’s heart was glad; and he took the 
ephod and the Teraphim, and went in the midst of the people. So 
they turned and departed and put the little ones and the cattle and the 
goods before them. 

When they were a good way from Micah’s house, the men that were 
in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and overtook the 
children of Dan. And they shouted to the Danites; and they turned 
their faces, and said unto Micah: What aileth thee, that thou comest 
with such a company? And he said: Ye have taken the gods that I 
made and the priest and have gone away; and what have I more? How 
then say ye unto me: What aileth thee? And the Danites said unto him: 
Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you 
and thou lose thy life and the lives of thy household. And the Danites 
went their way; and Micah, seeing that they were too strong for him, 
turned and went back to his house. But they took that which Micah 
had made and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, upon a 
people quiet and secure, and smote them with the edge of the sword, 
and they burnt the city with fire. And there was no one to save if, 
for it was far from Zidon and they had no dealings with any other. 

And they rebuilt the city and dwelt therein. And they called it Dan; 
and the Danites set up for themselves the idol, and Jonathan, the son of 
Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons, were priests to the tribe of Dan. 

(And the Children of Israel again did that which was evil in the 
sight of Yahweh, and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the 
Midianites seven years, until the Israelites cried for help unto Yahweh.) 
And the Messenger of Yahweh came and sat under the terebinth which 
was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abi-ezrite; and his son Gideon 
was beating out wheat in the wine-press to hide it from the Midianites. 
And the Messenger of Yahweh appeared unto him and said unto him: 
Yahweh is with thee, thou mighty man of valor! And Gideon answered 
him: O, my ford, if Yahweh be with us, why then is all this befalling 
us, and where are all His wondrous works of which our fathers told us, 
saying: Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? But now, Yahweh 
hath cast us off and given us into the hands of Midian. Then Yahweh 
turned towards him, and said: Go in this thy might, and save Israel 
from the hand of Midian. But he answered: O, my lord, wherewith 
shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and 
I am the least in my father’s house. And He answered: Surely, I will 
be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he 
said unto Him: If now I have found favor in Thy sight, depart not 
hence, I pray Thee, until I come again and bring forth my offering and 
lay it before Thee. And He said: I will tarry until thou come back. 
And Gideon went in and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes 


90 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


of an ephah of meal; the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the 
broth in a pot, and brought it to the man under the terebinth. And 
the Messenger of Yahweh reached out the staff that was in his hand, 
and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up 
fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. 
When Gideon perceived that it was the Messenger of Yahweh, he 
said: Alas, O God Yahweh! I have seen the Messenger of Yahweh, 
face to face. And Yahweh said unto him: Peace be unto thee; fear 
not! thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, 
and called it Yahweh-shalom (Yahweh is peace); it is yet in Ophrah 
of the Abi-ezrites. 

And the spirit of Yahweh possessed Gideon; and he sounded the 
alarm and the men of Abiezer were gathered together to follow him. 
And Jerubbael (that is, Gideon) and all the people that were with him 
rose up early and encamped beside En-harod; and the camp of Midian 
was north of Gibeath-moreh. And it came to pass the same night, that 
Yahweh said unto him: Arise, get thee down upon the camp, for I 
have delivered it into thy hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou 
with Purah thy servant into the camp and hear what they shall say; 
afterwards shall thy hand be strengthened to descend upon the camp. 
Then went he down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the 
armed men that were in the camp. Now the Midianites were lying in 
the plain like the sand upon the seashore for multitude. And as Gideon 
came near, a man was telling a dream unto his fellow, and saying: Be- 
hold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a great cake of barley-bread tumbled 
into the camp of Midian; and it came to the tent and struck it that it 
fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat. And his com- 
panion said: this is nothing else than the men of Israel; into their hand 
hath Yahweh delivered all the host. And it was so, when Gideon heard 
the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he wor- 
shiped; and he returned into the camp of Israel and said: Arise, for 
Yahweh hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. And Gideon 
had three hundred men, and he divided them into three companies, and 
put into the hand of all of them empty pitchers and lamps in their 
pitchers. And he said: Look at me, and when I blow the horn do as I 
do. And he blew his horn and the three companies shattered their 
pitchers, grasping the torches, and shouted: For Yahweh and Gideon! 
And they stood where they were about the camp; and all the camp 
awoke and sent up a wild cry and fled to Zeredah, to the border of Abel- 
Meholah near Tabbath. 

And Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the three hundred men with 
him, faint yet pursuing. And he said to the inhabitants, of Succoth: 
Give loaves of bread, I pray you, unto the people that follow me; for they 
are faint. I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. 
But the rulers of Succoth said: Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna 
now in thy power, that we should give thy soldiers bread? And Gideon 
said: When Yahweh hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my power, 
then will I tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with 
briers. And he went up thence to Penuel, and spake in like manner; 
and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had done. 
And he spake also unto the men of Penuel: When I come back in 
peace, I will break down this tower. 

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor, and their hosts with them, 
about fifteen thousand men; and Gideon went up by the way east of 
Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the host, for the host felt secure; 
and Zebah and Zalmunna fled. And he pursued after them; and he 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 91 


took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and discomfited all 
the host. And Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle, from 
the ascent of Heres. And he caught a young man of the men of Succoth, 
and inquired of him; and he wrote down for him the princes of Succoth 
and the elders thereof, seventy and seven men. And he came unto the 
men of Succoth, and said: Behold, Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning 
whom ye did taunt me, saying: Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna 
now in thy power, that we should give bread unto thy men that are 
weary? And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness 
and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. And he brake 
down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city. Then said he 
unto Zebah and Zalmunna: Who, then, were the men whom ye slew 
at Tabor? And they answered: As thou art, so were they; in stature 
like king’s sons, every one. And he said: They were my brethren, the 
sons of my mother. As Yahweh liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I 
would not kill you. And he said unto Jether, his first-born: Up, and 
slay them. But the youth drew not his sword; for he feared, for he was 
yet a youth. Then said Zebah and Zalmunna: Rise thou, and fall upon 
us; for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose and slew 
Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on the necks of 
their camels. And Gideon said to his men: I will make a request of 
you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his spoils. (For 
they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) And they 
answered: We will give them willingly. And they spread a garment, 
and did cast therein every man the earrings of his spoil. And the 
weight of the golden rings was a thousand and seven hundred shekels 
of gold. And Gideon made thereof an ephod, and put it in his city, 
even in Ophrah. And all Israel went astray after it there; and it became 
a snare unto Gideon and to his family. Thus the Midianites were 
subdued by the Israelites, and litfed not their heads again. And the 
land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. 


SECTION IV.—The Last of the Warrior-Judges. The story of Samson: 
his birth; his provocation of the Philistines; his death. The outrage 
at Gibeah, and the punishment and reduction in power of Benjamin. 
The First Recorded Aggressions of the Phillistines; their capture of 
the Ark of the Covenant; their punishment by Y Yahweh; the Return 
of the Ark. (Judges, xiii-xviil; xix, 1-6a, 8b-10a, 11, 12, 14, 15b-16a, 
a eo 30 xx, 1a, ¢,3-8, 14; 19, 29, 36b- 37a, 38- AA, kha, AT: sxleieet J) 
16- 19a, 241- 25. 1 Samuel, iv, 2a, Grom a. Ba, G 6b, 7b, 9a, C, 10b; 
Vv, 4-11a: Vil, 2-4, 6-14, 16, 49-21: Vil, 1.) 

Materials: As before, inaciions and folk-songs; probably, also, 
priestly records from the temple at Shiloh. 


Now there was a certain man of Zorah of the tribe of the Danites 
whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare no child. 
And the messenger of Yahweh appeared unto the woman and said 
unto her: Behold now, thou art barren and hast borne no child; but 
thou shalt conceive and bear a son. Now, therefore, I pray thee, drink 
no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou 
shalt conceive and bear a son; and no razor must come upon his head; 
for the child shall be a Nazarite from his mother’s womb, and he shall 
begin to save Israel out of the hands of the Philistines. 

Then the woman came to her husband and told him, saying: A 


92 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


man of God came to me, and his countenance was like the countenance 
of a messenger of God, very terrible; and I asked him not whence he 
came, neither told he me his name. But he said: Behold, thou shalt 
conceive and bear a son; and now, drink no wine nor strong drink, nor 
eat any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazarite from the womb 
to the day of his death. 

Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said: O Yahweh, I pray Thee, 
let the man of God whom Thou didst send come again unto me and teach 
us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. And God heark- 
ened to the voice of Manoah; and the messenger of God came again to 
the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoah her husband was not 
with her. And the woman made haste, and ran and told her husband, 
and said unto him: Behold, the man hath appeared unto me that came 
unto me that day. And Manoah rose and went after his wife, and came 
upon the man and said: Art thou the man that spake unto the woman? 
And he said: I am. And Manoah said: Now, when thy word cometh 
to pass, what shall be the rules for the child, and what shall be done 
with him? And the messenger of Yahweh said unto Manoah: Of all that 
I said unto the woman let her be mindful. She may not eat of any product 
of the vine, nor let her drink any strong drink nor eat any unclean 
thing; all that I commanded her let her observe. And Manoah said unto 
the messenger of Yahweh: I pray thee, let us detain thee, that we may 
make ready a kid for thee. And the messenger of Yahweh said unto 
Manoah: Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; and if 
thou wilt make a burnt-offering, thou must offer it to Yahweh. For 
Manoah knew not that he was the messenger of Yahweh. And Manoah 
said unto him: What is thy name, that when thy words come to pass 
we may do thee honor? And the messenger of Yahweh said unto him: 
Wherefore askest thou after my name, seeing it is hidden? So Manoah 
took the kid and offered it upon the rock unto Yahweh. And the man 
did wondrously; for it came to pass when the flame went up toward 
heaven from off the altar, that the messenger of Yahweh ascended in the 
flame of the altar; and Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on 
their faces to the ground. Then Manoah knew that he was the messenger 
of Yahweh; but the messenger of Yahweh did no more appear to Manoah 
or to his wife. And Manoah said unto his wife: We shall certainly 
die, because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him: If Yahweh 
were pleased to kill us, He would not have received the burnt-offering 
at our hand, neither would He have shown us all these things, nor would 
at this time have announced to us such a thing. 

And the woman bare a son and called his name Samson; and the 
boy grew up, and Yahweh blessed him. And the spirit of Yahweh began 
to move him. 

And Samson went down to Timrath and saw a woman of the daugh- 
ters of the Philistines there. And he came back and told his father 
and his mother: I have seen at Timnath a daughter of the Philistines; 
now therefore get her for me to wife. Then his father said unto him: 
Is there never a woman of the daughters of thy brethren, or among all 
my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philis- 
tines? And Samson said unto his father: Get her for me, for she 
pleaseth me well. But his father and his mother knew not that it was 
of Yahweh, that He sought an occasion against the Philistines. So 
Samson went down to Timnath and came to the vineyards of Timnath; 
and behold, a young lion roared against him. And the spirit of Yahweh 
came mightily upon him, and he rent him as one would rend a kid; he 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 93 


had nothing in his hand. Then he went down and talked with the 
woman; and she pleased Samson well. And after a while, he returned 
to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion; and 
behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion and honey. 
And he scraped out the honey into his hands, and went on eating as he 
went; and he came to his father and mother and gave unto them, and 
they did eat; but he told them not he had scraped the honey out of the 
body of the lion. And Samson went down to the woman, and he made 
there a feast; for so used the bridegrooms to do. And it came to pass 
that thirty companions were with him. And Samson said unto them: 
Let me now put forth a riddle to you; if ye can declare it me within the 
seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty 
changes of raiment; but if ye cannot declare it unto me, then shall ye 
give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment. And they 
said: Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it. And he said: 


Out of the eater came forth food, 
And out of the strong came forth sweetness. 


And they could not solve the riddle. And it came to pass on the seventh 
day that they said unto Samson’s wife: Entice thy husband, that he 
may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father’s house 
with fire; have ye called us hither to impoverish us? And Samson’s 
wife wept before him, and said: Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me 
not; thou hast put forth a riddle to my people, and wilt thou not tell 
it me? And he said unto her: I have not told even my father and 
mother, and shall I tell it thee? But she wept before him the seven 
days that they held the feast; and it came to pass on the seventh day 
that he told her, because she pressed him sore; and she told the riddle 
to the children of her people. And the men of the city said unto him on 
the seventh day, before the sun went down: 


What is sweeter than honey? 
And what is stronger than a lion? 


And he said unto them: 


If with my heifer ye had not ploughed, 
Ye had not found out my riddle. 


And the spirit of Yahweh came mightily upon him; and he went 
down to Ashkelon and smote thirty men of them and took their spoil, 
and gave the changes of raiment unto them that declared the riddle. And 
his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house. But Sam- 
son’s bride was given to his companion whom he had had for his 
groomsman. 

But it came to pass after a while, in the time of wheat-harvest, that 
Samson went to visit his wife with a kid; and he said: I will go in 
to my wife in her chamber. But her father said: I verily thought that 
thou didst hate her utterly, therefore I gave her to thy friend. Is 
not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead. 
And Samson said: This time shall I be quits with the Philistines when 
I do them a mischief. And Samson went and caught three hundred 
foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail and put a 
torch between every two tails. And when he had set the torches a-fire, 
he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up 
both the shocks and the standing grain. Then the Philistines said: 
Who hath done this? and they said: Samson, the son-in-law of the 
Timnathite; because he hath taken Samson’s wife and given her to his 


94 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


friend. And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father 
with fire. And Samson said: If ye do after this manner, surely I will 
be avenged of you; and after that I will cease. And he smote them 
hip and thigh with a great slaughter. Then he went down and dwelt in 
the cleft of the rock of Etam. 

Then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah, and spread them- 
selves against Lehi. And the men of Judah said: Why are ye come up 
against us? And they said: ‘To bind Samson are we come up, to do 
to him as he hath done to us. Then three thousand men of Judah went 
down to the cleft of the rock Etam, and said to Samson: Knowest thou 
not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what then is this that thou 
hast done unto them? And he said: As they did to me, so have I done 
unto them. And they said unto him: We are come down to bind thee, 
that we may deliver thee into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson 
said: Swear unto me that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. And 
they spake unto him, saying: No; but we will bind thee fast and deliver 
thee into their hand; but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound 
him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock. When 
he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him; and the 
spirit of Yahweh came mightily upon him, and the ropes upon his 
arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bonds dropped 
from off his hands. And he found a new jaw-bone of an ass, and put 
forth his hand and took it, and smote a thousand therewith. And Sam- 
son said: 


With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, 
With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men. 


And it came to pass, when he had finished speaking, that he cast 
away the jawbone out of his hand; therefore that place was called 
Ramath-lehi. And he was sore athirst, and called Yahweh, and said: 
Thou hast given this great deliverance by the hand of Thy servant; 
and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircum- 
cised? But God clave the hollow place that is in Lehi, and there 
came out water; and when he had drunk, his spirit revived; wherefore 
the name of that place is called En-hakkore which is in Lehi to this day.” 

Samson went to Gaza, and he saw there a harlot and went in unto 
her. [And it was told] the Gazites: Samson is come hither. And they 
were quiet all the night, saying: Let be till the morning light; then we 
will kill him. But Samson lay till midnight; and at midnight he rose 
and laid hold of the doors of the city-gate and the two posts, and plucked 
them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them 
to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron. 

Afterward it came to pass, that Samson loved a woman in the valley 
of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines 
came up unto her and said: Entice him, and find wherein his great 
strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him and 
bind him that we may afflict him, and each of us will give thee 
eleven hundred pieces of silver. And Delilah said to Samson: ‘Tell me, 
I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou 
mightest be bound to overpower thee. And Samson said unto her: If 
they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, 
then shall I become weak like any other man. ‘Then the lords of the 
Philistines brought her seven fresh bow-strings which had not been 


1The redactor adds: “And he (Samson) judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 
twenty years.” 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL _. 95 


dried, and she bound him with them. And she said: The Philistines 
are upon thee, Samson! And he broke the bowstrings as a string of 
tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So the secret of his strength 
was not known. And Delilah said unto Samson: Behold, thou hast 
mocked me, and told me lies; now tell me wherewith thou canst be bound. 
And he said: If they only bind me with new ropes wherewith no work 
hath been done, then shall I become weak, and be as other men. So 
Delilah took new ropes and bound him therewith, and said to him: The 
Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And the men were lying in wait in 
the inner chamber. And he snapped the ropes from his arms like thread. 
And Delilah said to Samson: Hitherto thou hast mocked me and told 
me lies; tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said: If 
thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web and fastenest it 
with a pin, I shall become weak and like any other man. So, while he 
was asleep, she took the seven locks of his hair and wove them with 
the web, and fastened it with the pin, and said to him: The Philistines 
are upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and plucked 
away the pin from the beam and the web. 

Then she said unto him: How canst thou say, I love thee, when thy 
heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast 
not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass, when 
she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was 
vexed unto death; and he told her all his heart and said unto her: 
There hath not come a razor upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite 
unto God from my mother’s womb. If I be shaven, then my strength 
will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. 

Now when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent 
and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying: Come up this once, 
for he hath told me all his heart. And the lords of the Philistines came 
up to her, and brought the money in their hands. And she put him 
to sleep upon her knees. And she called for a man, and had the seven 
locks of his hair shaven off; and she began to torment him, and his 
strength went from him. And she said: The Philistines are upon thee, 
Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep and said: I will go out as at other 
times and shake myself. But he knew not that Yahweh had departed 
from him. And the Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; 
and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of 
brass; and he did grind in the prison-house. Howbeit, the hair of his 
head began to grow again after he was shaven. 

And the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice 
unto Dagon their god and to rejoice; for they said: Our god hath de- 
livered Samson, our enemy, into our hands. And when the people saw 
him, they praised their god, for they said: Our god hath given into our 
hand our enemy, the destroyer of our country who hath killed many 
of us. And it came to pass when their hearts were merry, that they 
said: Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called 
for Samson out of the prison-house, and he made sport before them; 
and they set him between the pillars. 

Then Samson said to the lad that held him by the hand: Suffer me 
to feel the pillars whereupon the house resteth, that I may lean upon 
them. Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords 
of the Philistines were there,* who were looking on while Samson made 
sport. Then Samson prayed unto Yahweh, and said: O God Yahweh, 


+P adds, to make the disaster greater ‘‘and there were upon the roof three thousand 
men and women”’, 


96 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this 
once, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines for one of my 
two eyes! Then Samson grasped firmly the two middle pillars upon 
which the house rested, and leaned upon them, the one with his right 
hand, the other with his left. And he said: Let me die with the 
Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might, and the house 
fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were therein. So those 
that he killed at his deafh were more than those whom he slew in his 
life. 

Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down and 
took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Esh- 
taol, in the burial-place of Manoah, his father. 


Now it came to pass in those days, that there was a certain Levite 
sojourning in a remote part of the hill-country of Ephraim, who took 
him a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. And his concubine became 
angry with him and left him, and went to her father’s house in Bethle- 
hem in Judah, and was there the space of four months. Then her hus- 
band followed her to speak kindly to her and to bring her back, having 
with him his servant and a couple of asses; and he came to her father’s 
house, and she brought him in. And when the father of the damsel 
saw him, he came to meet him rejoicing. And his father-in-law, the 
girl’s father, detained him, and he abode with him three days. So they 
did eat and drink and lodged there. On the fourth day when he arose 
in the morning, he was about to set out; but the damsel’s father said 
unto his son-in-law: Stay thy heart with a morsel of bread, and then 
ye shall go your way. So they sat down and did eat and drink, both of 
them together; and so they tarried till the close of day. And when the 
man rose to go, he and his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, 
the damsel’s father, said: Behold now, the day draweth toward the 
evening; tarry, I pray you, to-night; behold, the day is declining; lodge 
here and be merry, and to-morrow get you early on your way, that thou 
mayest go home. But the man would not tarry that night, but rose up 
and set out. When they were near Jebus, and the day was far spent, 
the servant said unto his master: Come, let us turn aside to this town 
of the Jebusites, and pass the night in it. But his master said: We 
will not turn aside into the city of a stranger that belongeth not to the 
Children of Israel. So they went on their way; and the sun went down 
as they were near Gibeah, which belongeth to Benjamin. And they 
entered it, and sat down in the market-place of the town; for no one 
took them to lodge in his house. 

And behold, an old man was coming home at evening from his work 
in the fields. And he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the 
market-place of the city, and the old man said: Whither goest thou, 
and whence comest thou? And he said unto him: We are passing 
from Bethlehem-Judah to the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim. 
From thence am I, and I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and I am now 
going to my house, and no man taketh me into his house. Yet we have 
here both chopped straw and provender for our asses, and there is also 
bread and wine for us and for thy handmaid, and for the young man 
that is with thy servant; there is no lack of anything. Then said the 
old man: Peace be to thee; however, let all that thou needest be at my 
charge, only lodge not in the market-place. . So he brought them to his 
house, and gave the asses fodder; and they washed their feet and did 
eat and drink. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 97 


As they were making their hearts merry, behold certain base fel- 
lows of the city beset the house round about, beating on the door and 
commanding the master of the house, saying: Bring forth the man 
that came into thy house. And the master of the house went out to 
them, and said to them: Nay, my brethren, be not so wicked, seeing 
that this man is come into my house; do not this wanton deed. But the 
men would not listen to him. Then the man laid hold on his concubine 
and thrust her out to them in the street; and they laid hold on her and 
abused her all night until the morning; and when the day began to 
dawn, they let her go. Then came the woman at the dawning of the 
day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was 
till it was light. And when her lord rose in the morning, and opened 
the door of the house to go his way, behold, the woman his concubine 
was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were on the 
sill. And he said unto her: Up, and let us be going. But none answered. 
Then the man put her upon an ass, and rose up and gat him unto his 
place. 

And when he came to his house, he took a knife and laid hold of his 
concubine and divided her joint by joint into twelve pieces, and sent 
them throughout all the borders of Israel. And he commanded the men 
whom he sent out, saying: Thus shall ye say to all the men of Israel: 
Did ever a thing like this happen from the time that the Children of 
Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day? Consider it, take 
counsel, and speak. 

Then all the Israelites went out for war to the sanctuary of Yahweh 
at Mizpah. And the Benjamites heard that all the Children of Israel 
were gone up to Mizpah. And the Children of Israel said: Tell us, how 
did this wickedness come about? And the Levite, the husband of the 
woman who was murdered said: I came with my concubine to Gibeah. 
which belongeth to Benjamin, to lodge for the night. And the men of 
Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about by night, and 
thought to have slain me; and they ravished my concubine so that she 
died. Then I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and sent them 
throughout all the country of Israel, because they have committed lewd- 
ness and wantonness in Israel. Behold, ye are all here, ye Children of 
Israel; give your word and counsel here. Then all the people stood 
up, saying: We will none of us go to his tent, nor any of us to his home. 
So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together 
as one man. 

Now the children of Benjamin gathered from their cities to Gibeah 
to make war against the Israelites. So the Israelites set out in the 
morning, and encamped against Gibeah; and Israel put men in ambush 
against Gibeah on all sides. And the men of Israel gave ground to 
Benjamin, relying upon the ambush which they had set for Gibeah. 
Then the ambush made haste and rushed upon Gibeah. Now it had been 
agreed between the men of Israel and the ambush that, when they 
should make a great flame with smoke rise out of the city, then the men 
of Israel should turn about to the battle. And Benjamin had begun to 
make slaughter among the men of Israel, and killed about thirty persons; 
and they said: We have surely beaten them. But when the flame 
began to rise out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites 
looked back and behold, the flame of the whole city ascended up to 
heaven. Then the men of Israel turned again, and the men of Benjamin 
were dismayed, for they saw that evil was come upon them, and there 
fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men. But six hundred men turned 


98 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and fled to the rock of Rimmon, and abode on the rock of Rimmon 
four months. 

Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying: No one of us 
shall give his daughter to Benjamin to wife. But the people were sorry 
for Benjamin, because Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of 
Israel; for women had been utterly destroyed out of Benjamin; and 
they said: Those that are escaped must be inheritors for Benjamin, 
that a tribe be not wholly blotted out from Irsael. Howbeit, we may 
not give them wives of our daughters. For the Children of Israel had 
sworn: Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin. 

Then they said (to the Benjamites): Behold, there is a feast of Yah- 
weh from year to year at Shiloh; go, lie in wait in the vineyards; and lo, 
if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come ye 
out of the vineyards and catch you every man his wife of the daughters 
of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. And it shall be, if their 
fathers or their brethren come to us to complain, then we will say to 
them: Grant them graciously unto them; for had ye given them to them, 
ye would now be guilty. 

And the Benjamites did so; and they took them wives of them that 
danced, whom they carried off. And they went back again to their pos- 
session, and rebuilt their cities, and dwelt in them. 


Now it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered 
together to make war upon Israel; and they slew of the army in the 
field about four thousand men. So when the Israelites had come back 
into the camp, they sent to Shiloh and brought thence the ark of the 
covenant of Yahweh Sabaoth. And when the ark came into the camp, 
the earth rang; and the Philistines knew that the ark of Yahweh was 
come into the camp, and they cried: Woe unto us! for there hath not 
been such a thing before. But be ye valiant; quit yourselves like men, 
and fight. And the Philistines fought, and there was a very great 
slaughter. 

Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God; and they brought it 
from Ebenezer to Ashdod. And they took the ark of God, and brought 
it into the House of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when they of 
Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen on his 
face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh. And they took Dagon 
and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the 
morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground 
before the ark of Yahweh; and the head of Dagon and both the palms 
of his hands lay cut off upon the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon 
was left to him. Therefore, neither the priests of Dagon, nor any 
that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ash-— 
dod to this day. 

But the hand of Yahweh was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and He 
destroyed them and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and all 
the borders thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, 
they said: The ark of the god of Israel shall not abide with us, 
for his hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon our god. They sent there- 
fore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said: 
What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel? And they answered: 
Let the ark of the god of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they 
carried the ark of the God of Israel thither. And it was so that, after 
they had carried it thither, the hand of Yahweh was against the city 
with a very great destruction; and He smote the men of the city, both 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 99 


small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. Therefore 
they sent the ark cf God to Ekron. 

And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ek- 
ronites cried out, saying: They have brought the ark of the God of 
Israel to us, to slay us and our people. So they sent and gathered 
together all the lords of the Philistines and said: Send away the ark 
of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place that it slay 
not us and our people; for there was a deadly pestilence throughout 
all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there. And the men that 
died not were smitten with the emerods; and the cry of the city went 
up to heaven. 

Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying: 
What shall we do with the ark of Yahweh? tell us wherewith we shall 
send it to its place. And they said: If ye send away the ark of the God 
of Israel, send it not empty, but in any wise return Him a trespass- 
offering; then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why His 
hand is not removed from you. Then said they: What shall be the 
trespass-offering which we must return to Him? They answered: Five 
golden emerods and five golden mice, according to the number of the 
lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all and on your lords. 
Wherefore do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh 
hardened their hearts? When He had wrought wonderfully among 
them, did they not let the people go, and they departed? 

Now, therefore, take a new cart, and take two milch kine on which 
there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart and bring their 
calves home from them; and take the ark of Yahweh and lay it upon 
the cart; and put the jewels of gold, the trespass-offering which ye 
return Him, in a coffer by the side thereof, and send it away that it may 
go. And see if it goeth up by the way of His own border to Beth- 
shemesh; then He hath done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall 
know that it is not His hand that hath smitten us; it was a chance 
that happened to us. 

And the men did so. They took two milch kine and tied them to the 
cart, and shut up their calves at home; and they laid the ark of Yahweh 
upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and with the images 
of the emerods. And the kine took the straight way by the road to 
Beth-shemesh, and they went along the highway, lowing as they went. 
They turned not away to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of 
the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth-shemesh. And 
they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley: and 
thy lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it. And 
the cart came to the field of Joshua, a Beth-shemite, where was a great 
stone; and it stood there; and they cleaved the wood of the cart, and 
offered the kine a burnt-offering unto Yahweh. And when the five lords 
of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. 

And Yahweh smote of the men of Beth-shemesh three score and ten 
men, because they looked into the ark of Yahweh; and the people 
mourned because He had smitten so many of the people. And the men 
of Beth-shemesh said: Who is able to stand before this holy God, 
Yahweh? And to whom shall He go up from us? And they sent mes- 
sengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying: The Philistines 
have brought back the ark of Yahweh; come ye down and fetch it up 
to you. And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and fetched up the ark of 
Yahweh, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanc- 
tified Eleazer his son to keep the ark of Yahweh. 


CHAPTER IV 
THE KINGSHIP OF SAUL, THE BENJAMITE 


SECTION I.—The Israelites demand a king. Saul, seeking his father’s 
asses, appears before Samuel the Seer. Samuel anoints him king. 
Saul saves Jabesh-Gilead from the Ammonites. The people hail 
him as king in Gilgal. He orders his forces for an attack upon the 
Philistines. His son Jonathan makes the first foray upon their 
garrison. The great exploit of Jonathan, followed by an earthquake 
and the rout of the Philistines. Saul builds his first altar to Yahweh. 
(4 Samuel, ix-x, 7, 9-16; xi, 4-7, 9-11, 15; xiil,4-5a, 7a, 16-18;2b si, 
4-4,) 

Materials: Oral traditions, the “Book of Jashar”’, the “Wars of 
Yahweh”, Priestly Records, “Acts of Samuel the Seer”. 


Now there was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of 
Abiel, the son of Zerar, the:son of Bechereth, the son of Aphiah; a 
Benjamite, a mighty man of valor. And he had a son whose name was 
Saul, a choice young man and a goodly; and there was not among the 
Children of Israel a goodlier person than he; for from his. shoulders 
upward he was taller than any of the people. 

And the asses of Saul’s father, Kish, were lost. And Kish said to 
Saul his son: Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go 
seek the asses. And he passed through mount Ephraim, and passed 
through the land of Shalim, and passed through the land of the Ben- 
jamites, and found them not. And when they were come to the land of 
Zuph, Saul said to his servant that was with him: Come, let us return, 
lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us. And 
he answered him: Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, an 
honorable man; all that he saith cometh to pass. Now let us go thither; 
peradventure he can show us the way that we should go. 

Then said Saul to his servant: But behold, if we go, what shall we 
bring to the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and we have 
no present to bring to the man of God. What have we? And the 
servant answered Saul again, and said: Behold, I have here at hand 
the fourth part of a shekel of silver; that will I give to the man of God 
to tell us our way. (Aforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire 
of God, he said: Come let us go to the Seer; for he that is now called 
a prophet was aforetime called a Seer.) Then said Saul to his servant: 
Well said, let us go. So they went into the city where the man of 
God was. 

And as they went up to the city, they found young maidens going 
out to draw water, and said unto them: Is the Seer here? And they 
answered them and said: He is; behold, he is ahead of you; make 
haste now, for he came to-day to the city; for there is a sacrifice of 
the people to-day in the high place; as soon as ye be come into the city 
ye shall straightway find him, before he go up to the high place to eat; 


100 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 101 


for the people will not eat until he come, because he doth bless the 
sacrifice; afterwards they eat that are bidden. 

And they went up into the city; and when they were come into the 
city, behold, Samuel came out against them to go up unto the high 
place.* 

Now Yahweh had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, say- 
ing: To-morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land 
of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him captain over My people Israel, 
that he may save My people ouf of the hand of the Philistines; for I 
have looked upon My people, because their cry hath come unto Me. And 
when Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh said unto him: Behold the man of 
whom I spake unto thee; this same shall reign over My people. 

Then Saul drew near unto Samuel in the gate, and said: Tell me, 
I pray thee, where the seer’s house is. And Samuel answered Saul, and 
said: I am the seer; go up before me unto the high place, for ye 
shall eat with me to-day, and to-morrow I will let thee go, and will tell 
thee all that is in thy heart. As for thine asses that were lost three 
days ago, set not thy mind on them, for they are found. And on whom 
is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father’s 
house? 

And Saul answered and said: Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest 
of the tribes of Israel? and my family least of all the families of the 
tribe of Benjamin? Wherefore then speakest thou so to me? 

And Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the 
chamber, and made them sit in the chiefest place among them that were 
bidden, which were about thirty persons. And Samuel said unto the 
cook: Bring the portion that I gave thee, of which I said: Set it by 
thee. And the cook took up the shoulder and that which was upon 
it, and set it before Saul. And Samuel said: Behold that which was 
left; set it before thee and eat; for unto this time hath it been kept for 
thee since I said: I have invited the people. So Saul did eat with 
Samuel that day. 

And when they were come down from the high place into the city, 
Samuel communed with Saul on the top of the house. And they arose 
early. And it came to pass about the spring of the day, that Samuel 
called to Saul on the top of the house, saying: Up, that I may send 
thee away. And Saul arose; and they went out both of them, he and 
Samuel, abroad. And as they were going down to the end of the city, 
Samuel said to Saul: Bid the servant pass on (and he passed on), but 
stand thou still awhile, that I may show thee the word of God. 

Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head, and 
kissed him, and said: Is it not because Yahweh hath anointed thee to 
be prince over His inheritance? When thou art departed from me 
to-day, thou shalt find two men by Rachel’s tomb in the border of 
Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee: The asses which thou 
wentest to seek are found; and lo, thy father hath left off caring for the 
asses, and is sorrowing for you, saying: What shall I do for my son? 
Then thou shalt go forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the 
plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men going up to God 
to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves 

1In this version, the introduction of Samuel is as abrupt as that of Melchizedek; 
but it is improbable that J had given no account of his origin and early history. We 
may rather infer that JE preferred the fuller and more romantic account of E; and, as 
has happened before, no later editor seems to have thought a connecting link necessary. 
E left Samuel a judge in a small circuit of four cities only, but of considerable importance. 


He appears here as a revered Seer, exercising priestly functions, whose verdict is 
accepted in the highest civic affairs. 


102 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine; and they will salute 
thee, and give thee two loaves of bread, which thou shalt receive at 
their hands. After that, thou shalt come to the hill of God where is 
the garrison of the Philistines. And it shall come fo pass when thou 
art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets 
coming down from the high place with a psaltery and a tabret and a 
pipe and a harp before them; and they shall prophesy. And the Spirit 
of Yahweh shall come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, 
and shalt be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs 
are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is 
with thee. 

And it was so, that, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, 
God gave him another heart; and all those signs came to pass that day. 
And when they came to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met 
him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied with 
them. And it came to pass, when all that knew him aforetime saw that 
he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another: 
What is this that hath come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among 
the prophets? And one of the same place answered and said: But who 
is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the 
prophets? And when he had made an end of prophesying, he came to 
the high place. 

And Saul’s uncle said unto him and to his servant: Whither went 
ye? And he said: To seek the asses; and when we saw them nowhere, 
we went to Samuel. And Saui’s uncle said: Tell me, I pray thee, what 
Samuel said unto thee? And Saul said unto his uncle: He told us 
plainly that the asses were found. But of the matter of the kingdom 
whereof Samuel spake, he told him not. 

Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh- 
Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash: Make a covenant 
with us, and we will serve thee. And Nahash the Ammonite answered 
them: On this will I make it with you, that I may thrust out all your 
right eyes, and lay it for a reproach to all Israel. And the elders of 
Jabesh said unto him: Give us seven days ’respite, that we may send 
messengers unto all the coasts of Israel; and then, if there be none to 
save us, we will come out to thee. Then came the messengers to Gibeah 
of Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the people; and all the 
pople lifted up their voices and wept. 

And behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said: 
What aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings 
of the men of Jabesh. And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he 
heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. And he took a 
yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all 
the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying. Whosoever 
cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto 
his oxen. And the fear of Yahweh fell upon the people, and they 
came out with one consent. 

And they said unto the messengers that came: Thus shall ye say 
unto the men of Jabesh-Gilead: To-morrow, by that time the sun be 
hot, ye shall have help. And the messengers came and showed it to 
the men of Jabesh: and they were glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh 
said: To-morrow we will come out to you, and ye shall do with us all 
that seemeth good unto you. 

And it was so, that on the morrow Saul put the people into three 
companies, and they came into the midst of the host in the morning 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 103 


watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day; and it came 
to pass that they which remained were scattered so that two of them 
were not left together. And all the people went to Gilgal; and there 
they made Saul king before Yahweh in Gilgal; and there they offered 
sacrifices of peace-offerings before Yahweh; and there Saul and all the 
men of Israel rejoiced greatly. 


*Now when Saul had reigned two years over Israel, he chose him 
three thousand men of Israel, whereof two thousand were with Saul in 
Michmash and in mount Bethel, and a thousand with Jonathan in 
Gibeah of Benjamin; and the rest of the people he sent every man to 
his tent. Now some of the Hebrews had gone over the Jordan to the 
land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul and Jonathan his son, and the people 
who were with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin. And the Philistines 
encamped in Michmash. And the spoilers came out of the camp of the 
Philistines in three companies: one company turned unto the way that 
leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual; another company turned the 
way of Beth-horon; and another turned the way of the border that 
looketh down upon the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness. And 
the garrison of the Philistines went out unto the pass of Michmash. 

Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said 
to the young man who bare his armor: Come, let us go over to the 
Philistine garrison that is on the other side. But he told not his father. 
And Saul was tarrying in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pome- 
granate-tree which is in Migron; and the people that were with him 
were about six hundred men, and Ahiah the son of Ahitub (Ichabod’s 
brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli who had been the priest of 
Yahweh in Shiloh), wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that 
Jonathan had gone. 

Now between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over to 
the Philistines’ garrison was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp 
rock on the other side; and the name of the one was Bozez, and the 
name of the other Seneh. The fore-front of the one was situate north- 
ward over against Michmash, and the other eastward over against 
Gibeah. And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor: 
Come and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised; it 
may be that Yahweh will work for us, for to Yahweh there is no restraint 
to save by many or by few. And his armor-bearer said unto him: Do 
all that is in thine heart; turn thee; behold, I am with thee, according to 
thy heart. Then said Jonathan: Behold, we will pass over unto these 
men, and we will discover ourselves to them. If they say thus unto us: 
Tarry until we come to you; then we will stand still in our place and 
will not go up unto them. But if they say thus: Come up unto us,— 
then we will go up; for Yahweh hath delivered them unto us; and this 
shall be the sign unto us. 

And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison of the 
Philistines; and the Philistines said: Behold, the Hebrews come forth 
out of the holes where they had hid themselves. And the men of the 
garrison answered Jonathan and his armor-bearer, and said: Come up, 
and we will show you a thing. 

And Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer: Come up after me; for 
Yahweh hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. And Jonathan 
climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armor-bearer 

1Chapter xii is interpolated by a Deuteronomist. The style and manner of Samuel’s 


address are out of harmony with the simple account of the selection and grateful accept- 
ance of the first king, given by J. It is therefore omitted. 


104 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


after him; and they fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer slew 
after him. And the first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor-bearer 
made was about twenty men, within as it were half an acre of land. 
And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the 
people; the garrison and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the earth 
quaked; so it was a very great trembling. And the watchmen of Saul 
in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and behold, the multitude melted away, 
and they went on beating one another down. 

Then said Saul unto the people who were with him: Number now, 
and see who is gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, 
Jonathan and his armor-bearer were not there. And Saul said unto 
Ahiah: Bring hither-the ark of God (for the ark of God was there with 
them at that time); and it came to pass, while Saul was talking unto 
the priest, that the noise in the host of the Philistines went on and in- 
creased; and Saul said unto the priest: Withdraw thy hand. And Saul 
and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and came 
to the battle; and behold, every man’s sword was against his fellow, 
and there was a very great discomfiture. Moreover the Israelites that 
were with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them 
into the camp from round about, even they also turned to be with the 
Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, all the men of 
Israel who had hid themselves in mount Ephraim, when they heard that 
the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in battle. 

So Yahweh saved Israel that day; and the battle passed over unto 
Bethaven. 

And the men of Israel were distressed that day; for Saul had adjured 
the people, saying: Cursed be the man that taketh any food until the 
evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people 
tasted any food. And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was 
honey on the ground. And when the people were come into the wood, 
behold, the honey was dropping; but no man put his hand to his mouth; 
for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan heard not when his father 
straitly charged the people with the oath; wherefore he put forth the 
end of the rod that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb, and 
put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened. 

Then said one of the people: Thy father straitly charged the people 
with an oath, saying: Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. 
Now the people were faint. Then said Jonathan: My father hath 
troubled the land; see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlight- 
ened, because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more, if haply 
the people had eaten more freely to-day of the spoil of their enemies 
which they found; for had there not been a much greater slaughter 
among the Philistines? 

And they smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon, 
and the people were very faint. And the people flew upon the spoil, and 
took sheep and oxen and calves, and slew them on the ground; and the 
people did eat them with the blood. 

Then they told Saul, saying: Behold, the people sin against Yahweh, 
in that they eat with the blood. And he said: Ye have transgressed; 
roll a great stone unto me this day. And Saul said: Disperse yourselves 
among the people, and say unto them: Let every man bring me hither 
his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay them here and eat; and sin 
not against Yahweh, by eating with-the blood. And all the people 
brought, every man with him that night, his ox, and they slew them 
there. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 105 


And Saul built an altar unto Yahweh; the same was the first altar 
that he built unto Yahweh. 

And Saul said: Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and 
spoil them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of 
them. And they said: Do whatsoever seemeth good to thee. Then said 
the priest: Let us draw near unto God. And Saul asked counsel of 
God: Shall I go down after the Philistines? wilt Thou deliver them into 
the hand of Israel? But He answered him not that day. And Saul said: 
Draw ye near hither, all the chief of the people; and know and see 
wherein this sin hath been this day; for, as Yahweh liveth, which sayeth 
Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But. there 
was not a man among all the people that answered him. Then said he 
unto all Israel: Be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan my son 
will be on the other side. And the people said unto Saul: Do what 
seemeth good unto thee. Therefore Saul said unto Yahweh: God of 
Israel, give a perfect lot! And Saul and Jonathan were taken, but the 
people escaped. And Saul said: Cast lots between me and Jonathan my 
son. And Jonathan was taken. 

Then Saul said to Jonathan: Tell me what thou hast done. And 
Jonathan told him, saying: I did but take a little honey with the end 
of the rod that was in my hand; lo, I must die. And Saul answered: 
God do so unto me, and more also; for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan. 

And the people said unto Saul: Shall Jonathan die, who hath 
wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid; as Yahweh liveth, 
there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath 
wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he 
died not. 

Then Saul went up from following the Philistines; and the Philis- 
tines went to their own land. 


SECTION II.—Samuel brings Saul a command to annihilate the Amalek- 
ites. Saul spares the king, and gives the best of the spoil to his 
men. Thereby, he loses the kingdom of Israel. He becomes a 
victim of melancholia. His men advise music as a remedy, and 
introduce David, a skilled musician and an able warrior. Saul wel- 
comes him; but becomes jealous of his prowess, and tries to kill 
him. David escapes to Nob, “the city of the priests”. Is seen there 
by the spy, Doeg the Edomite, who later, at Saul’s command, slaugh- 
ters all the priests of Nob, and destroys the city. David saved from 
Saul’s enmity by his wife Michal, Saul’s daughter. A band of out- 
laws gathers about him in the cave of Adullam. He provides for the 
safety of his father and mother in Moab; then becomes the head of 
the outlaws. Saul pursues him relentlessly, but is at last overcome 
by David’s generosity. (1 Sam’l, xv, 1-25, 32-35; xvi, 14-23; xviil, 
20-20 vexixy) 11-175 xxi, 2-465 xx11/ 94-233) xxiii) 4-14a;. xxvij 1-25.) 
Materials: Abundant folk-songs. A collection called “Wars of Yah- 
weh”. A “Chronicle of King David”. The “Acts of Samuel the 
Seer”; possibly, also, the “Acts of Gad”, and the “Chronicles of the 
feet DE Judah” often referred to by the late writer called the 

ronicler. 


Then Samuel said unto Saul: Yahweh sent me to anoint thee to be king 
over his people, over Israel. Now, therefore, hearken thou unto the 
vcice of Yahweh. Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth: I remember what 
Amalek did to Israel; how he set himself against him in the way when 


106 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


he came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly de- 
stroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both men and 
women, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. 

And Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two 
hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul 
came to the city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley. And Saul 
said unto the Kenites: Go, depart, get you down from among the 
Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye showed kindness to all 
the Children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites 
departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites, 
from Havilah as thou goest to Shur, that is in front of Egypt. And he 
took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive; and utterly destroyed all 
the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared 
Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, even the youngest 
of the second birth, and the lambs, and all that was good; but everything 
that was of no account and feeble, that they destroyed utterly. 

Then came the word of Yahweh to Samuel, saying: It repenteth 
Me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned back from fol- 
lowing Me, and hath not performed My commandments. And it grieved 
Samuel; and he cried unto Yahweh all night. And when Samuel rose 
early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying: Saul 
came to Carmel; and behold, he is setting him up a monument, and is 
gone about and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal. 

And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said unto him: Blessed be thou 
of Yahweh; I have performed the commandment of Yahweh. And Sam- 
uel said: What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, 
and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? And Saul said: They have 
brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of 
the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto Yahweh thy God; and the rest 
we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said unto Saul: Stay, and I 
will tell thee what Yahweh hath said unto me this night. And he said 
unto him: Say on. 

And Samuel said: Though thou be little in thine own sight, art 
thou not head of the tribes of Israel? And Yahweh anointed thee king 
over Israel. And Yahweh sent thee on a journey, and said: Go and 
utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until 
they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not hearken to the voice 
of Yahweh? but thou didst fly upon the spoil, and didst that which was 
evil in the sight of Yahweh. 

And Saul answered Samuel: Yea, I have hearkened to the voice of 
Yahweh, and have gone the way Yahweh sent me, and have brought 
Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 
But the people took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the devoted 
things, to sacrifice unto Yahweh thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said: 


Hath Yahweh as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, 
As in hearkening to the voice of Yahweh? 
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, 
And to hearken than the fat of rams. 
For rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft, 
And Stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. 


Because thou hast rejected the word of Yahweh, He hath also rejected 
thee from being king. 

Then said Samuel: Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the 
Amalekites. And Agag said: Surely the bitterness of death is at hand. 
And Samuel said: 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 107 


As thy sword hath made women childless, 
So shall thy mother be childless among women. 


And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before Yahweh in Gilgal. 


Now the Spirit of Yahweh had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit 
from Yahweh terrified him. And Saul’s servants, said unto him: Be- 
hold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now 
command his servants that are before him to seek out a man who is 
a skilful player on the harp; and it shall be when the evil spirit from 
God cometh upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt 
be well. And Saul said unto his servants: Provide me now a man 
that can play well, and bring him to me. Then aswered one of the young 
men, and said: Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, 
that is skilful in playing, and a mighty man of valor, and a man of 
war, and prudent in affairs, and a comely person, and Yahweh is with 
him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said: Send me 
David thy son. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of 
wine and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul. And David 
came to Saul and stood before him; and he loved him greatly; and he 
became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying: Let David, 
I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favor in my sight. And 
it came to pass, that when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that 
David took the harp and played with his hand; so Saul found relief and 
was well and the evil spirit departed from him. 

Now it came to pass on a day, that an evil spirit from God came 
mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house, and David 
played with his hand, as at other times; and Saul had his spear in his 
hand. And Saul cast the spear, for he said: I will smite David even to 
the wall. And David stepped aside out of his presence twice. And Saul 
was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with him, and was departed 
from Saul. Therefore Saul removed him from him, and made him his 
captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people. 
And David had great success in all his doings; and Yahweh was 
with him. Wherefore, when Saul saw that he acted very wisely, he was 
afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went 
out and came in before them. And David went out whithersoever Saul 
sent him, and behaved himself wisely; and Saul set him over the men 
of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in 
the sight of Saul’s servants. 

. And Saul said unto David: Behold my elder daughter Merab, her 
will I give thee to wife; only be thou valiant for me and fight Yahweh’s 
battles. For Saul said: Let not mine hand be upon him, but let. the 
hand of the Philistines be upon him. And David said unto Saul: Who 
am I, and what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should 
be son-in-law to the king? But it came to pass at the time when Merab, 
Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to 
Adriel the Meholathite to wife. 

Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and 
the thing pleased him. And he said: I will give her to him, that she 
may be a snare unto him, and that the hand of the Philistine may be 
against him. Wherefore Saul said unto David: Thou shalt this day 
be my son-in-law through one of the twain. And Saul commanded his 
servants: Speak with David secretly, and say: Behold, the king hath 
delight in thee, and all his servants love thee; now therefore, be the 
king’s son-in-law. And Saul’s servants spake these words in the ears of 


108 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


David. And David said: Seemeth it to you a light thing to be the king’s 
son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed? And the 
servants of Saul told him, saying: In this manner spake David. And 
Saul said: Thus shall ye say to David. The King desireth not any 
dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of 
the king’s enemies. For Saul thought to make David fall by the hand 
of the Philistines. And when his servants told David these words, it 
pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. And the days were not 
expired; and David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the 
Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and 
they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king’s 
son-in-law. And Saul gave Michal his daughter to him to wife. And 
Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David. And Michal, Saul’s 
daughter, loved him. And Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and 
Saul remained David’s enemy continually. . 

Then the princes of the Philistines came forth; and as often as they 
came forth David prospered more than all the servants of Saul, so that 
his name was much set by. 

And Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, and to slay 
him in the morning. And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying: If 
thou save not thy life this night, to-morrow thou shalt be slain. So 
Michal let David down through the window; and he went and fled and 
escaped. And Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed and put 
a pillow of goats’ hair at the head thereof and covered it with a cloth. 
And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said: He is sick. 
Then Saul sent messengers to see David, saying: Bring him up to me 
in the bed, that I may slay him. And when the messengers came in, 
behold, the teraphim was in the bed with the pillow of goats’ hair at 
the head thereof. And Saul said unto Michal: Why hast thou de- 
ceived me, and sent mine enemy away so that he has escaped? And 
Michal answered Saul: He said unto me: Let me go. Why should I 
kill thee? 

(Now David fled and escaped and came to Samuel to Ramah and 
told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and 
dwelt in Naioth. And it was told Saul: Behold, David is at Naioth in 
Ramah. And Saul sent messengers to take David; and when they saw 
the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as chief 
of them, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they 
also prophesied. And when this was told Saul, he sent other messengers, 
and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messangers again the third 
time, and they also prophesied. Then went he also to Ramah, and came 
to the great cistern that is in Secu; and he asked and said: Where are 
“Samuel and David? And one said: Behold, they are at Naioth in 
Ramah. And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah; and the spirit of 
God came upon him also, and he went on and prophesied, until he came 
to Naioth in Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes, and he also 
prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that night. Where- 
for they say: Is Saul also among the prophets?)* 

Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech 
came to meet David trembling, and said unto him: Why art thou alone 
and no man with thee? And David said unto the priest Ahimelech: 


1A Deuteronomist has interpolated here (vv, 18-24) a variant of the legend given 
by J as a result of the anointing of Saul (ch. x, 9-18). The repetition of this and other 
events in the lives of their heroes in different settings, speaks strongly for their popularity. 
Each version shows an attempt to find a new reason for the widely quoted saying. Some- 
times it has even reached the ears of aliens who understand the allusion at a word. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 109 


The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me: Let 
no man know anything of the business whereabout I send thee, and 
what I have commanded thee; and the young men have I appointed to 
such and such a place. Now therefore, what is under thy hand? five 
loaves of bread? give them into my hand, or what there is at hand. And 
the priest answered David, and said: There is no common bread here 
under my hand, but there is hallowed bread,—if the young men have 
kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest, and said 
unto him: Of a truth, women have been kept from us about these 
three days, since I came out; and the vessels of the young men are holy, 
and it [the bread] is in a manner common, yea, though it were this day 
sanctified in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread; for 
there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before 
Yahweh, to put in hot bread the day when it was taken away. 

Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, de- 
tained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of 
the herdsmen that belonged to Saul. And David said unto Ahimelech: 
And is there here peradventure under thy hand spear or sword? for I 
have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the 
king’s business required haste. And the priest said: The sword of 
Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the vale of Elah, behold it 
is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if thou wilt take that, 
take it; for there is no other save that here. And David said: There 
is none like that; give it me. 

And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to 
Achish, king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said unto him: Is 
not this David, the king of the land? Did not they sing of him one to 
another in the dances, saying: . 





Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands! 


And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of 
Achish, king of Gath. And he changed his demeanor before them, and 
feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the 
gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish to 
his servants: Lo, when ye see a man is mad, wherefore do ye bring 
him unto me?. Do I lack madmen, that ye have brought this fellow to 
play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? 

David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave of Adullam; 
and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went 
down thither unto him. And every one that was in distress, and every 
one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered 
themselves unto him; and he became captain over them; and there were 
with him about four hundred men. 

And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab; and he said unto the king 
of Moab: Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth and 
be with you, till I know what God will do for me. And he brought them 
before the king of Moab; and they dwelt with him all the while that 
David was in the stronghold. And the prophet Gad said unto David: 
Abide not in the stronghold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. 
Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth. And Saul 
heard that David was discovered and the men that were with him. 
Now Saul was sitting under the holy tree in Ramah with his spear in 
his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. And Saul said 
unto his servants that stood about him: Hear now, ye Benjamites: 
will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? will 


110 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, that 
al! of you have conspired against me, and there was none that disclosed 
it to me, when my son made a league with the son of Jesse? and there 
is none that is sorry for me, or discloseth unto me that my son hath 
stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait as at this day? Then 
answered Doeg the Edomite who was set over the servants of Saul; and 
he said: I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son 
of Ahitub. And he inquired of Yahweh for him, and gave him victuals, 
and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. 

Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, 
and all his father’s house, the priests that were in Nob’; and they came 
all of them to the king. And Saul said: Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. 
And he answered: Here Iam, my lord. And Saul said unto him: Why 
have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou 
hast given him bread and a sword, and hast inquired of God for him, 
that he should rise against me to lie in wait as at this day? Then Ahi- 
melech answered the king, and said: And who among all thy servants 
is so trusted as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, and giveth heed unto 
thy bidding and is honorable in thy house? Have I begun to-day to 
inquire for him? Be it far from me; let not the king impute anything 
unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for thy servant 
knoweth nothing of all this, less or more. And the king said: Thou 
shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou and all thy father’s house. 

Then the king said unto the guard that stood about him: Turn and 
slay the priests of Yahweh; because their hand is also with David, and 
because they knew that he fled and did not disclose it unto me. But 
the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon 
the priests of Yahweh. And the king said unto Doeg: Turn thou, and 
fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon 
the priests, and he slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did 
wear a linen ephod. And Nob [Gibeon], the city of the priests, smote he 
with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, 
and oxen and asses and sheep, with the edge of the sword. And one of 
the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and 
fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh’s 
priests. And David said: I knew on that day when Doeg the Edomite 
was there, that he would surely tell Saul; I have brought about the 
death of all the persons of thy father’s house. Abide thou with me; 
fear not; for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life; so with me thou 
shalt be in safeguard. 

And they told David, saying: Behold, the Philistines are fighting 
against Keilah, and they rob the threshing-floors. Therefore David 
inquired of Yahweh, saying: Shall I go up and smite these Philistines? 
And Yahweh said unto David: Go and smite the Philistines, and save 
Keilah. And David’s men said unto him: Behold we are afraid here in 
Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the 
Philistines. Then David inquired of Yahweh once again. And Yahweh 
answered him and said: Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the 
Philistines into thy hand. And David and his men went to Keilah, 
and fought with the Philistines and brought away their cattle and slew 
them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. 

1The word translated Nob is a corrupt form of Gibeon, a city already well known 
from the covenant made with Joshua by fraud by its inhabitants, who thus escaped the 
fate of Jericho and Ai. It was the seat of an ancient Canaanitish sanctuary, whose priests 


had accepted the worship of Yahweh. That they were Canaanites, may have been the 
plea by which Saul justified himself for the wholesale massacre he commanded. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 144 


And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to 
David to Keilah that. he brought an ephod in his hand. And it was 
told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said: God hath 
delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town 
that hath gates and bars. And Saul summoned all the people to war, | 
to go down to Keilah and besiege David and his men. And David knew 
that Saul was devising evil against him; and he said to Abiathar the 
priest: Bring hither thine ephod. Then said David: O Yahweh, God 
of Israel, Thy servant hath surely heard that Saul seeketh to come to 
Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah 
deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as Thy servant 
hath heard? O Yahweh, the God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy 
servant. And Yahweh said: They will come down. Then said David: 
Will the men of Keilah deiver me up? And Yahweh said: They will 
deliver thee up. Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, 
arose and departed, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was 
told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah, and he forbare to go 
forth. 

Then the Ziphites came unto Saul at Gibeah, saying: Doth not 
David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon? 
Then Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three 
thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness 
of Ziph. And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshi- 
mon, by the roadside. But David abode in the wilderness; and he saw 
that Saul had come after him into the wilderness. David therefore 
sent out spies, and understood that Saul was certainly come. And 
David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched; and David 
beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner, the son of Ner, the captain 
of the host, and Saul lay within the barricade, and the people pitched 
round about him. 

Then said David to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son 
of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying: Who will go down with me to 
Saul in the camp? And Abishai said: I will go down with thee. So 
David and Abishai came to the people by night; and behold, Saul lay 
sleeping within the barricade, with his spear stuck in the ground at 
his head; and Abner and the people lay round about him. Then said 
Abishai to David: God hath delivered up thine enemy into thy hand 
this day; now therefore, let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear 
to the earth at one stroke, and I will not smite him the second time. 
And David said to Abishai: Destroy him not; for who can put forth 
his hand against Yahweh’s anointed, and be guiltless? And David said: 
As Yahweh liveth, nay; but Yahweh shall smite him, or his day shall 
come to die; or he shall go down into battle, and be swept away. 
Yahweh forbid it me, that I should put forth my hand against Yahweh’s 
anointed. But now, take, I pray thee, the spear that is at his head, 
and the cruse of water, and let us go. So David took the spear and 
the cruse of water from Saul’s head; and they gat them away and no 
man saw it or knew it, neither did any awake, for they were all asleep; 
because a deep sleep from Yahweh was fallen upon them. 

Then David went over to the other side of the mountain, and stood 
on the top afar off; a great space being between them. And David 
cried to the people and to Abner the son of Ner, saying: Answerest 
thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said: Who art thou that 
criest to the king? And David said unto Abner: Art not thou a valiant 
man? and who is like unto thee in Israel? Wherefore then, hast thou 


412 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


not kept watch over thy lord the king? for there came one of the 
people in to destroy the king, thy lord. This thing is not good that 
thou hast done. As Yahweh liveth, ye deserve to die, because ye 
have not kept watch over your lord, Yahweh’s anointed. And now, 
see where the king’s spear is, and the cruse of water that was 
at the king’s head. 

And Saul knew David’s voice, and said: Is this thy voice, my son 
David? And David said: It is my voice, O my lord the king. And 
he said, Wherefore doth my lord pursue his servant? for what have 
I done? or what evil is in my hand? Now therefore, I pray thee, let 
my lord the king listen to the words of his servant. If it be Yahweh 
that hath stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering; but 
if the children of men, cursed be they before Yahweh; for they have 
driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of Yahweh, 
saying: Go, serve other gods. Now, therefore, let not my blood fall 
to the earth before the face of Yahweh; for the king of Israel is come 
out to seek a flea, or as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains. 

Then said Saul: I have sinned; return, my son David, for I will 
no more do thee harm, because my life was precious in thine eyes 
this day. Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. 

And David answered and said: Behold, the king’s spear, and let 
one of the young men come over and fetch it. May Yahweh render 
to every man according to his righteousness and fidelity; for Yahweh 
delivered thee into my hand this day, but I would not stretch forth 
my hand against Yahweh’s ‘anointed. And behold, as thy life was 
much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in 
the eyes of Yahweh, and may He deliver me out of all tribulation. 

Then said Saul unto David: Blessed be thou, my son David; thou 
shalt both do great things, and shalt also surely prevail. 

So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place. 


SecTION III.—The Philistines advance in great force to Shunem. Saul 
is terrified. Yahweh does not answer his appeals, and Samuel is 
dead. Saul seeks a prophecy of good fortune from the sorceress 
of Endor. The battle is joined on mount Gilboa. Three of Saul’s 
sons are killed; and, having lost the battle, Saul falls upon his 
sword. David receives these tidings at Ziklag. He goes to Hebron, 
where he is anointed King of Judah. Abner, Saul’s captain, raises 
the standard of Ishbosheth, Saul’s remaining son, as King of 
Ephraim and Benjamin. Joab is made captain of David’s forces. 
Abner, alienated by Ishbosheth, comes to the support of David. 
Is killed by Joab. Ishbosheth is slain by two of his own captains. 
The northern tribes seek alliance with Judah. UDOavid is anointed 
king of the twelve tribes. With their aid, David takes the strong- 
hold of the Jebusites, and rules thenceforth from Jersualem. 
(4 Sam’l., xxvii, 4-16, 19b-25; 2 Sam’l., i, 4-16, 17-27; ili, 1-29, 30-39; 
iv, 1-2a, 3-12; v, 1-3, 6-12.) 

Materials: Popular traditions; “Chronicles of King David’; “Acts of 
Gad”; “Wars of Yahweh”; Priestly Records; State Records. 


The Philistines gathered themselves together and came and pitched 
in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel? together, and they pitched in 
Gilboa. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, 


1“ Al] Israel’? must here be interpreted, all of the southern tribes, who had fought 
with Saul against the Philistines before. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 113 


and his heart trembled greatly. Now Saul had put away those that 
divined by a ghost or by a familiar spirit out of the land. But, when 
Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh answered him not, neither by dreams, 
nor by Urim nor by prophets. Then Saul said unto his servants: Seek 
me a woman that divineth by a ghost, that I may go and inquire of 
her. And his servants said: Behold, there is a woman that divineth 
by a ghost at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other 
raiment, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the 
woman by night; and he said: Divine unto me, I pray, thee, by a 
ghost, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto thee. And 
the woman said unto him: Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done; 
how he hath cut off those that divine by a ghost or by a familiar 
spirit out of the land; wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, 
to cause me to die? And Saul sware to her by Yahweh, saying: As 
Yahweh liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this 
thing. Then said the woman: Whom shall I bring up unto thee? 
And he said: Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, 
she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spake to Saul, saying: 
Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said 
unto her: Be not afraid; what seest thou? And the woman said unto 
Saul: I see a godlike being coming up out of the earth. And he said 
unto her: What form is he of? And she said: An old man cometh 
up; and he is covered with a robe. And Saul perceived that it was 
Samuel; and he bowed with his face to the ground, and prostrated 
himself. 

And Samuel said to Saul: Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring 
me up? And Saul answered: I am sore distressed; for the Philistines 
make war against me, and God is departed from me and answereth 
me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams; therefore have I 
called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. 

Then said Samuel: Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing 
Yahweh is departed from thee, and is become thine adversary? To- 
morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; Yahweh will deliver the 
host of Israel, also, into the hand of the Philistines. 

Then Saul fell straightway his full length upon the earth, and was 
sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength 
in him, for he had eaten no bread all the day nor all the night. And 
the woman came unto Saul and saw that he was sore affrighted, and 
said to him: Behold, thy handmaid hath hearkened unto thy voice, 
and I have put my life in thy hand, and have hearkened unto thy 
words which thou spakest unto me. Now therefore, hearken thou 
also, I pray thee, unto the voice of thy handmaid, and let me set a 
morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength 
when thou goest on thy way. But he refused, and said: I will not eat. 
But his servants together with the woman urged him, and he hearkened 
unto their voice. So he rose from the earth, and sat upon the bed. 
And the woman had a fatted calf in the house; and she made haste 
and killed it; and she took flour and kneaded it, and did make un- 
leavened bread thereof; and she brought it before Saul and before his 
servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that 
night. 

Then the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel 
fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. 
And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and 
the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons 


114 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


of Saul. And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers over- 
took him; and he was in great anguish by reason of the archers. Then 
said Saul to his armor-bearer: Draw thy sword, and thrust me through 
therewith, lest these uncircumcised ones come and thrust me through 
and make a mock of me. But His armor-bearer would not, for he was 
sore afraid. Therefore Saul took his sword and fell upon it. And 
when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell upon 
his sword, and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons, and 
his armor-bearer and all his men that day together. And when the 
men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, and they that 
were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul 
and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled; and the 
Philistines came and dwelt in them. 

And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to 
strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount 
Gilboa. And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and 
sent into the land of the Philistines round about to carry the tidings 
unto the house of their idols and to the people. And they put his armor 
in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall 
of Beth-shean. 

Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard concerning him that 
which the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and 
went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons 
from the wall of Beth-shean; and they took their bones and buried them 
under the holy tree in Jabesh; and they fasted seven days. 


After the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter 
of the Amalekites and had abode two days in Ziklag, it came to pass 
that behold, a man came out of the camp of Saul with his clothes 
rent and earth upon his head; and so it was, when he came to David, 
that he fell to the earth and prostrated himself. And David said unto 
him: Whence comest thou? And he said unto him: Out of the camp 
of Israel am I escaped. And David said unto him: How went the 
matter? I pray thee, tell me. And he answered: The people are fled 
from the battle, and also many of the people are fallen and dead; and 
Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also. And David said unto the 
young man that was telling him: How knowest thou that Saul and 
Jonathan his son are dead? And the young man that told him said: 
As I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon 
his spear; and lo, the chariots and the horsemen pressed hard upon 
him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto 
me. And I answered: Here am I. And he said unto me: Who art 
thou? And I answered him: I am an Amalekite. And he said unto 
me: Stand, I pray thee, beside me and slay me, for the agony hath 
taken hold of me, because my life is yet whole in me. So I stood 
beside him and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live 
after he was fallen. And I took the crown that was upon his head 
and the bracelet that was on his arm, and I have brought them hither 
unto my lord. 

Then David took hold on his clothes and rent them; and likewise 
did all the men who were with him, and they mourned and wept, and 
fasted until even for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people 
of Yahweh and for the house of Israel, because they were fallen by 
the sword. 

And David said unto the young man who told him: Whence art 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 115 


thou? And he answered: I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite. 
And David said unto him: How wast thou not afraid to put forth thy 
hand to destroy Yahweh’s anointed? And David called one of the 
young men, and said: Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him 
that he died. And David said unto him: Thy blood be upon thy 
head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying: I have slain 
Yahweh’s anointed. 

And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jona- 
than his son. (Also, he bade them teach the children of Judah “The 
Bow”; behold, it is written in the “Book of Jashar”) :* 


Tell it not in Gath, Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, 
Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, 
Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. 


Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain upon you, 
Neither fields of choice fruits; 
For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, 
The shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil! 
From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, 
The bow of Jonathan turned not back, 
And the sword of Saul returned not empty,— 
Saul and Jonathan, the lovely and pleasant in their lives, 
And in their death they were not divided. 
They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. 


Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, 
Who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel, with other delights. 
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle? 
Jonathan is slain upon the high places! 


I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. 
Very pleasant hast thou been to me! 
Thy love to me was wonderful, 
Passing the love of women. 
How are the mighty fallen 
And the weapons of war perished! 


And it came to pass after this, that David inquired of Yahweh, say- 
ing: Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And Yahweh said 
unto him: Go up. And David said: Whither shall I go? And He 
said: Unto Hebron. So David went up thither and his two wives also, 
Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; 
and his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with 
his household; and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron. And the men 
of Judah came, and they there anointed David king over the house 
of Judah. 

And they told David, saying: The men of Jabesh-Gilead were they 
that buried Saul. And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabesh- 
Gilead, and said unto them. Blessed be ye of Yahweh, that ye have 
shown this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried 
him. And now, may Yahweh show kindness and truth unto you; and 
I also will requite you this kindness, because ye have done this thing. 
Now, therefore, let your hands be strong, and be ye valiant; for Saul 
your lord is dead, and also, the house of Judah have anointed me king 
over them. 

1 Although it is now held that this beautiful elegy is one of the latest insertions in 
2 Sam’l, it is preserved here, because it is so apposite to the preceding account, and could 


not be severed from it without loss. It was of course known to J, but all the poems in 
this book were inserted late. 


116 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s host, had taken Ish- 
bosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim; and he 
made him king over Gilead and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, 
and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. And Ishbosheth reigned two 
years. But the house of Judah followed David. 

And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son 
of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. And Joab the son of 
Zeruiah and the servants of David went out, and they met together by 
the pool of Gibeon, and sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, 
and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab: 
Let the young men, I pray thee, arise and play before us. And Joab 
said: Let them arise. Then there arose and went over by number 
twelve of Benjamin and for Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and twelve of 
the servants of David. And they caught each one his fellow by the 
head, and thrust his sword in his fellow’s side; so they fell down 
together; wherefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim (the field 
of the sharp knives) which is in Gibeon. And the battle was very sore 
that day, and Abner was beaten and the men of Israel before the servants 
of David. 

Now the three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab and Abishai and 
Asahel; and Asahel was as light of foot as one of the roes that are 
in the wilds. And Asahel pursued Abner; and in going he turned not 
to the right hand nor to the left in following Abner. Then Abner 
looked behind him, and said: Is it thou, Asahel? And he answered: 
It is I. And Abner said unto him: Turn thee aside to the right hand 
or to the left and lay hold on one of the young men, and take his armor. 
But Asahel would not turn aside from following him. And Abner said 
to Asahel: Turn thee aside from following me; wherefore should I 
smite thee to the ground? How then could I hold up my face to Joab, 
thy brother? Howbeit he refused to turn aside; wherefore Abner 
with the hinder end of his spear smote him in the groin, that the 
spear came out behind him; and he fell down there and died in that 
same place; and it came to pass, that as many as came to the place 
where Asahel fell down and died stood still. 

But Joab and Abishai pursued after Abner; and the sun went down 
when they were come to the hill of Ammah, that lieth before Giah by 
the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. And the children of Benjamin 
gathered themselves together after Abner and became one band, and 
stood on the top of a hill. Then Abner called to Joab and said: Shall 
the sword devour for ever? Knowest thou not that it will be bitter- 
ness in the end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people 
return from following their brethren? And Joab said: As God liveth, 
if thou hadst not spoken, surely then only after the morning had the 
people gone up from following every one his brother. And Joab blew 
the horn, and all the people stood still and pursued after Israel no 
more. And Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah; 
and they passed over the Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and 
came to Mahanaim. 

And Joab returned from following after Abner, and when he had 
gathered all the people together; there lacked of David’s servants nine- 
teen men and Asahel. But the servants of David had smitten of Ben- 
jamin, even of Abner’s men, three hundred and threescore men. And 
they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, 
which was in Beth-lehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and 
the day broke upon them in Hebron. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 117 


Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house 
of David; and David waxed stronger and stronger, but the house of 
Saul, weaker and weaker. And unto David were sons born in Hebron; 
end his firstborn was Ammon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; and his 
second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the 
third, Absalom the son of Maachah the daughter of Talmai, king of 
Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, 
Shephatiah, the son of Abitai; and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah David’s 
wife. 

And it came to pass, while there was war between the house of Saul 
and the house of David, that Abner showed himself strong in the house 
of Saul. Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the 
daughter of Aiah; and Ishbosheth said to Abner: Wherefore hast thou 
gone in unto my Father’s concubine? Then was Abner very wroth for 
the words of Ishbosheth, and said: Am I a dog’s head that belongeth 
to Judah? this day do I show kindness unto the house of Saul thy 
father, to his brethren, to his friends, and have not delivered thee 
into the hand of David, and yet thou chargest me this day with a fault 
concerning this woman. God do so to Abner, and more also, if, as 
Yahweh hath sworn unto David, I do not even so to him; to transfer 
the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David 
over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba. And he could 
answer Abner not another word, because he feared him. 

And Abner sent messengers to David straightway, saying: Whose 
is the land? saying also: Make thy league with me, and behold, my 
hand shall be with thee, to bring over all Israel unto thee. And he 
said: Well, I will make a league with thee; but one thing I require of 
thee, that is, thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring Michal, 
Saul’s daughter when thou comest to see my face. And David sent 
messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, saying: Deliver me my wife 
Michal, whom I betrothed unto me for a hundred foreskins of the Phil- 
istines. And Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband, Paltiel 
the son of Laish. And her husband went with her, weeping as he 
went, and followed her to Bahurim. Then said Abner to him: Go, 
return; and he returned. 

And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying: 
In times past ye sought for David to be king over you; now then do 
it; for Yahweh hath spoken of David, saying: By the hand of my 
servant David will I save My people Israel out of the hand of the 
Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies. And Abner 
spake also in the ears of Benjamin; and Abner went also to speak in 
the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and to 
the whole house of Benjamin. So Abner came to David to Hebron, 
and twenty men with him. And David made Abner and the men who 
were with him a feast. And Abner said unto David: I will arise and 
go, and will gather all Israel unto my lord the king, that they may make 
a covenant with thee, and that thou mayest reign over all that thy soul 
desireth. And David sent Abner away; and he went in peace. 

Now behold, the servants of David and Joab came from a foray, 
and brought in a great spoil with them; but Abner was not with 
David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace. 
When Joab and all the host that was with him were come, they told 
Joab, saying: Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he hath 
sent him away; and he hath gone in peace. Then Joab came to the 
king and said: What hast thou done? Behold, Abner came unto thee; 


118 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


why is it that thou hast sent him away, and he is quite gone? Thou 
knowest Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive thee, and to 
know thy going out and thy coming in, and all that thou doest. And 
when Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, 
and they brought him back from Bor-sirah; but David knew it not. 

And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into 
the midst of the gate to speak with him quietly; and he smote him 
there in the groin so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother. 
And afterward, when David heard it, he said: I and my kingdom are 
guiltless before Yahweh for ever from the blood of Abner son of Ner. 
Let it fall upon the head of Joab and of all his father’s house; and 
let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or 
that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth by the sword, 
or that lacketh bread. And David said to Joab and to all the people 
that were with him: Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, 
and wail before Abner. And King David followed the bier. And they 
buried Abner in Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice and wept at 
the grave of Abner; and all the people wept. And the king lamented 
for Abner, and said: Should Abner die as a churl dieth? And all the 
people wept again over him. And all the people came to cause David 
to eat bread while it was yet day; but David sware, saying: God do 
so to me and more also, if I taste bread or aught else till the sun be 
down. And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them. What- 
soever the king did pleased all the people. So all the people and all 
Israel understood that day, tnat it was not of the king to slay Abner 
the son of Ner. And the king said unto his servants: Know ye not that 
there is a prince and a great man fallen in Israel to-day? And I am 
this day weak, and just anointed king; and these men, the sons of 
Zeruiah, are too hard for me. May Yahweh reward the evil-doer accord- 
ing to his wickedness. 

Now when Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his 
hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were affrighted. And Saul’s 
son had two men who were captains of bands; the name of the one 
was Baanah, and the name of the other, Rechab, sons of Rimmon the 
Beerothite. 

Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame on his feet. 
He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out 
of Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it came to pass, 
as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name 
was Mephibosheth. 

And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, 
and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, as he 
took his rest at noon. And they came into the midst of the house, 
as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him in the 
groin; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. Now when they 
came into his house, as he lay on his bed in the bedchamber, they 
smote him and slew him and beheaded him, and took his head and 
went by the way of the Arabah all night. And they brought his head 
unto David to Hebron, and said unto the king. Behold the head of 
Ishbosheth, the son of Saul thine enemy who sought thy life; and 
Yahweh hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed. 

And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of 
Rimmon the Beerothite, and said unto them: As Yahweh liveth, who 
hath redeemed my soul out of all adversity, when one told me, saying: 
Behold, Saul is dead, and he was in his own eyes as one who brought 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 119 


good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag, instead of 
giving him a reward for his tidings. How much more, when wicked 
men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed. 
Shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away 
from the earth? And David commanded his young men, and they slew 
them and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up 
over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and 
buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron. 

Then came all the tribes of Israel to David in Hebron, and spake, 
saying: Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. In times past, when 
Saul was king over us, it was thou that didst lead out and bring in 
Israel; and Yahweh said unto thee: Thou shalt feed My people Israel, 
and thou shalt be prince over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came 
to the king in Hebron before cahweh, and they anointed David King 
over Israel. 

And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, 
the inhabitants of the land, who spake unto David, saying: Except 
thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither. 
Thinking: David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless, David took the 
stronghold of Zion—the same is the city of David. And David said on 
that day: Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites, and getteth up to the gutter, 
and... the blind and the lame, hated of David’s soul, . . . Wherefore 
they say: There are the blind and the lame; he cannot come into the 
house And David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it, The City 
of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. And 
David waxed greater and greater; for Yahweh, the God of Hosts, was 
with him. 

And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David, and cedar-trees, 
and carpenters and masons; and they built David a house. And David 
perceived that Yahweh had established him KING OVER ISRAEL; and that 
He had exalted his kingdom for His people Israel’s sake. 

1The text is here defective, and there are no means of knowing how David took a 
city that has resisted so many assaults. There is a hint only of his having escaladed the 


walls, and opened the gates from within. The LXX uses the defective passage only as 
the occasion of a by-word. 


CHAPTER V 


THE REIGN OF DAVID 
WARRIOR-KING AND ORGANIZER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM 


SECTION. I.—David establishes himself in Jerusalem. Surprisés the 
Philistines in two attempts against him and defeats them. Brings 
up the Ark of God to Jerusalem, and dances before it. Subdues 
the Philistines in a third battle, subjects Moab and the king of 
Zobah, puts garrisons in Damascus and Aram and Edom. Regulates 
the internal affairs of the kingdom and forms a Cabinet. Fulfils 
his promise to Jonathan to care for his children. His nephew, 
Joab, achieves great distinction as general of David’s forces. David's 
intrigue with Uriah’s wife. Nathan’s rebuke, and David’s repent- 
ance. The birth of Solomon. (2 Samuel, iv, 4a, 5; v, 13, 17-35; 
V1, 43233 Vill-x1, ..20, 210-2773 x1) 4278.7, ),090-250 
Materials: Folk-tales; “Chronicles of King David”; “Chronicles of 
the Kings of Judah”; “Acts of N athan”; “Acts of Gad”; State Records. 


(David was thirty years old when he began to reign. In Hebron he 
reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he 
reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.’) And David 
took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, when he was 
come from Hebron; and there were yet more sons and daughters born 
to David. 

Now when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over 
Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of 
it and went down to the hold. And the Philistines had come and spread 
themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of Yahweh: 
Shall I go up against the Philistines? Wilt Thou deliver them into my 
hand? And Yahweh said unto David: Go up; for I will certainly 
deliver the Philistines into thy hand. And David came to Baal-perazim, 
and smote them there; and he said: Yahweh hath broken mine ene- 
mies before me, like the breach of waters. Therefore the name of 
that place was called Baal-perazim (Master of breaches).. And they left 
their images there, and David and his men burned them. 

And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in 
the valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of Yahweh, He said: 
Thou shalt not go up; make a circuit behind them, and come upon 
them over against the mulberry trees. And it shall be when thou 
hearest the sound of rustling in the tops of the mulberry trees, that 
thou shalt bestir thyself; for then is Yahweh gone out before thee to 
smite the host of the Philistines. And David did so, as Yahweh com- 
manded him, and he smote the Philistines from Geba until thou comest 
to Gerar. 

And David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, 

1 These statistics bear the mark of late editing; but they are a needed link between 
the old and the new conditions of David’s kingship. 


120 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 121 


thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all the men who 
were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from thence the ark of 
God, whose name is called by the name of Yahweh Sabaoth (that 
dwelleth between the cherubim). And they set the ark of God upon 
a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in 
Gibeah; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab drove the new cart. 
And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was in Gibeah, 
with the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. And David and 
all the house of Israel played before Yahweh with all manner of 
instruments made of cyprus-wood, and with harps and with psalteries, 
and with timbrels and with sistra and with cymbals. 

And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put 
forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen 
stumbled. And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Uzzah; and 
God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of 
God. And David was displeased, because Yahweh had broken forth 
upon Uzzah; and that place was called Perez-uzzah to this day. And 
David was afraid of Yahweh that day; and he said: How shall the 
ark of God come unto me? So David would not remove the ark of 
Yahweh unto him into the city of David; but David carried it aside 
into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of Yahweh re- 
mained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and Yahweh 
blessed Obed-edom, and all his house. 

And it was told David: Yahweh hath blessed the house of Obed-edom, 
and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. And 
David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom 
into the city of David with gladness. And it was so, that when they 
that bore the ark of Yahweh had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox 
and a fatling. And David danced before Yahweh with all his might, 
and David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house 
of Israel brought up the ark of Yahweh with shouting and with the 
sound of the horn. 

And it was so, as the ark of Yahweh came into the city of David, 
that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw 
king David leaping and dancing before Yahweh; and she despised him 
in her heart. And they brought in the ark of Yahweh and set it in its 
place, in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it; and David 
offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before Yahweh. And when 
David had made an end of offering the burnt-offerings and the peace- 
offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh Sabaoth. And 
he dealt among all the people, even among fhe whole multitude of 
Israel, both to men and women, to every one a cake of bread and a 
good piece from the pan and a flagon of wine. So all the people de- 
parted every one to his own house. 

Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal, Saul’s 
daughter, came out to meet David, and said: How glorious was the 
king of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself in the eyes of the hand- 
maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers 
himself! And David said unto Michal: Before Yahweh, who chose me 
above thy father and above all his house, to appoint me prince over 
the people of Yahweh, over Israel—before Yahweh will I make merry. 
And I will be yet more vile than this, and will be base in mine own 
sight; and with the handmaids thou hast spoken of, with them will I 
get me honor. And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the 
day of her death. 


122 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


After this it came to pass that David smote the Philistines and 
subdued them; and David took Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the 
Philistines. 

And he smote Moab, and measured them out with a line, making 
them to lie down on the ground; and he measured two lines to be put 
to death, and one full line to keep alive. And the Moabites became 
David’s servants, and brought gifts. David smote also Hadadezer the son 
of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to establish his dominion at the 
river Euphrates. And David took from him a thousand and seven 
hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen; and David houghed 
all the chariot-horses, but reserved of them for a hundred chariots. 
And when the Arameans of Damascus came to succor Hadadezer king 
of Zobah, David smote of the Arameans two and twenty thousand 
men. Then David put garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Ara- 
means became servants to David and brought gifts. And Yahweh gave 
victory to David whithersoever he went. And David took the shields 
of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to 
Jerusalem. And from Betah and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, 
David took exceeding much brass.’ 

And when Toi, king of Hamath heard that David had smitten all 
the host of Hadadezer, then Toi sent Joram his son unto king David 
to salute him and to bless him (because he had fought against Hadadezer 
and smitten him; for Hadadezer had wars with Toi); and he brought 
with him vessels of silver and vessels of brass. These also did David 
dedicate unto Yahweh, with.all the silver and gold that he dedicated 
of all the nations which he subdued; of Aram and of Moab and of 
the children of Ammon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek, and 
of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah. And David got 
him a name when he returned from smiting the Arameans in the 
valley of Salt, even eighteen thousand men. And he put garrisons in 
Edom; throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites 
became servants [i.e., tributaries] to David. And Yahweh gave victory 
to David, whithersoever he went. 

And David reigned over all Israel, and David executed justice and 
righteousness unto all his people. And Joab the son of Zeruiah was 
over the army; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was Recorder; and 
Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were 
priests; and Seraiah was Scribe; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was 
over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David’s sons were chief 
ministers. 

And David said: Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, 
that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake? Now there was of 
the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, and they summoned 
him to David; and the king said unto him: Art thou Ziba? And he 
said: Thy servant is he. And the king said: Is there not any of the 
house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him? And 
Ziba said unto the king: Jonathan hath yet a son, who is lame on his 
feet. And the king said: Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king: 
Behold, he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar. 

*Ch. vii not only breaks the very homogeneous narrative of the older writer, but 
has distinctive marks of the hand of a Deuteronomist. Also, it neither accords with the 
trend of David’s mind, as it has been shown, nor has it a fit setting. David is in the very 
midst of his struggles. 

* This account of the conflict with the king of Zobah sounds apocryphal, especially 
as to the numbers killed or taken captive, and the amount of the spoil. The source in 


this case seems to have been a folk-tale, and not an official record. It will be remembered 
that David’s army is stated to have been thirty thousand men. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 123 


Then King David sent and fetched him out of the house of Machir 
the son of Ammiel, from Lodebar. And Mephibosheth, the son of 
Jonathan the son of Saul, came unto David, and fell on his face and 
prostrated himself. And David said: Mephibosheth! And he answered: 
Behold, thy servant. And David said unto him: Fear not; for I will 
surely show thee kindness for Jonathan’s, thy father’s sake, and will 
restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread 
continually at my table. And he bowed down, and said: What is thy 
servant, that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am? 

Then the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said unto him: 
Thou shalt till the land for thy master’s son, thou and thy sons and 
thy servants: and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master’s son 
may have bread to eat; but Mephibosheth, thy master’s son shall eat 
bread continually at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty 
servants. Then said Ziba unto the king: According to all that my lord 
the king commandeth his servant, so shall thy servant do; but Mephi- 
bosheth eateth at my table as one of the king’s sons. Now Mephibosheth 
had a young son, whose name was Mica. And all that dwelt in the house 
of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth. But Mephibosheth dwelt in 
Jerusalem; for he did eat continually at the king’s table; and he was 
lame on both his feet. 

And it came to pass after this that the king of the Ammonites died, 
and Hanun his son reigned in his stead. And David said: I shall show 
kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed unto me. 
So David sent by the hand of his servants to comfort him concerning 
his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the children 
of Ammon. But the princes of the children of Ammon said unto 
Hanun, their lord: Thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, 


_ that he hath sent comforters unto thee? hath not David sent his 


servants unto thee to search the city, and to spy it out and to over- 
throw it? So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off the one-half 
of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their 
buttocks, and sent them away. When it was told unto David, he sent 
to meet them for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said:. 
Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. 

Now, when the children of Ammon saw that they were become 
odious to David, they sent and hired the Arameeans of Beth-rehob 
and the Aramezeans of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king 
of Maacah with a thousand men, and the men of Tob, twelve thousand 
men. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of 
his warriors. And the children of Ammon came out and put the battle 
in array at the entrance of the gate, and the Aramwans of Zobah and 
of Rehob, and the men of Tob and of Maacah were by themselves in 
the field. Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before 
and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel and put them in 
array against the Arameeans, and the rest of the people he committed 
into the hand of Abishai his brother, and he put them in array against 
the Ammonites. And he said: If the Aramsans be too strong for me, 
then thou shalt help me; but if the Ammonites be too strong for thee, 
then I will come and help thee. Be of good courage, and let us prove 
strong for our people, and for the cities of our God; and Yahweh shall 
do what seemeth to Him good. 

So Joab and the people that were with him drew nigh unto the 
battle against the Arameeans, and they fled before him. And when 
the children of Ammon saw that the Arameans had fled, they likewise 


124 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


fled before Abishai, and entered into the city. Then Joab returned 
from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem. 

Now, when the Arameans saw that they were put to the worse 
before Israel, they gathered themselves together. And Hadadezer sent 
and brought out the Arameeans that were beyond the River, and they 
came to Helam with Shobach, the captain of the host of Hadadezer at 
their head. And it was told David, and he gathered all Israel together 
and passed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Aramezans 
set themselves in array against David, and fought with him. And the 
Arameans fled before Israel; and David slew of the Aramewans seven 
hundred drivers of chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote 
Shobach the captain of their host, so that he died there. And when 
all the kings that were servants to Hadadezer saw that they were put 
to the worse before Israel, they made peace with Israel and served 
them. So the Arameans feared to help the children of Ammon any ~ 
more. 

And it came to pass at the return of the time of the year when 
kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him 
and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged 
Rabbah. But David tarried at Jerusalem. And it came to pass at 
eventide, that David arose from his bed and walked upon the roof 
of the king’s house; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and 
the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David went and 
inquired after the woman. And one said: Is not this Bath-sheba 
the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent 
messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with 
her, for she was purified from her uncleanness; and she returned unto 
her house. And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, 
and said: I am with child. 

Then David sent to Joab, saying: Send me Uriah the Hittite. And 
Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David 
asked of him how Joab did and how the people fared, and how the 
war prospered. And David said unto Uriah: Go down to thy house, 
and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and 
there followed him a mess of food from the king. But Uriah slept at 
the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and went 
not down to his house. And when they had told David, saying: Uriah 
went not down to his house, David said unto Uriah: Art thou not come 
from a journey? Wherefore didst thou not go down unto thy house? 
And Uriah said unto David: The ark and Israel and Judah abide in 
booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in 
the open field; shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink and to 
lie with my wife? As thou livest, and as thy soul draweth breath, I will 
not do this thing. And David said to Uriah: 'Tarry here to-day also, and 
to-morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that 
day and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and 
drink before him, and he made him drunk; and at even he went out to 
ue on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his 

ouse., 

And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to 
Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, 
saying: Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire 
ye from him, that he may be smitten and die. And it came to pass, 
when Joab kept watch upon the city, that he assigned Uriah unto the 
place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 125 


came out and fought with Joab; and there fell some of the people, 
even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then 
Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war; and he 
charged the messenger, saying: When thou hast made an end of telling 
all the things concerning the war unto the king, it shall be, that if the 
king’s wrath arise, and he say unto thee: Wherefore went ye so nigh 
unto the city to fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the 
wall? why went ye so nigh the wall? then thou shalt say: Thy servant 
Uriah the Hittite is dead also. 

So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had 
sent him for. And the messenger said unto David: Surely the men 
prevailed against us and came out to us in the field, but we were upon 
them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from 
off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king’s servants are 
dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then said 
David unto the messenger: Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this 
thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another; 
make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it. Thus 
encourage thou him. 

And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, 
she made lamentation for her husband. But when the mourning was 
past, David sent and took her home to his house; and she became his 
wife, and she bare him a son. 

But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh. 

And Yahweh sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and 
said unto him: ‘There were two men in one city; the one rich, and 
the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds; 
but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb which he had 
bought and nourished up; and it grew up together with him and with 
-his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and 
lay in his bosom, and was to him as a daughter. And there came a 
traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and 
of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, 
but took the poor man’s lamb and dressed it for the man that was come 
to him. 

And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he 
said to Nathan: As Yahweh liveth, the man that hath done this shall 
surely die; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this 
thing, and because he had no pity. 

And Nathan said unto David: Thou art the man. Thus saith Yah- 
weh the God of Israel: *Thou hast smitten Uriah the Hittite with the 
sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with 
the sword of the children of Ammon. And David said unto Nathan: I 
have sinned against Yahweh. And Nathan said unto David: Yahweh 
also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by 
this deed thou hast given occasion to the enemies of Yahweh to blas- 
pheme, the child that is born unto thee shall surely die. And Nathan 
returned to his own house. 

And Yahweh struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and 
it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and 
David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. And the 
elders of his house arose and stood beside him to raise him up from the 
earth; but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it 


1The Deuteronomist has greatly added to Nathan’s arraignment of David and to the 
judgment pronounced against him, to the weakening of the simple and most impres- 
sive account of the incident. 


126 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants 
of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said: Be- 
hold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would 
not hearken unto our voice; how then will he vex himself, if we tell 
him that the child is dead? But when David saw that his servants 
whispered, David perceived that the child was dead; therefore David 
said unto his servants: Is the child dead? And they said: He is 
dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed him- 
self, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of Yahweh and 
worshiped. Then he came to his own house; and when he required, 
they set bread before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants 
unto him: What is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and 
weep for the child while it was alive; but when it was dead, thou 
didst rise and eat bread. 

And he said: While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for 
I said: Who knoweth whether Yahweh will be gracious to me, that 
the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can 
I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. 

And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her and 
lay with her; and she bare him a son, and called his name Solomon. 
And Yahweh loved him; and He sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, 
and he called his name Jedidiah (Beloved of Yahweh), because of 
Yahweh, 


SECTION II.—David continues to expand Israel’s possessions, but he 
has begun to pay the penalty for breaking the laws of the Cove- 
nant meant to preserve the purity of family life. His eldest son, 
Amnon, dishonors his half-sister, Tamar. Absalom bides his time, 
but finally avenges her by killing her betrayer. All the king’s sons 
flee from Jerusalem; the others return, but Absalom remains away 
three years. Joab causes Absalom to be recalled. Absalom wins 
over the people to his side and revolts against David. David flees 
before him with a great part of his people. Old adherents of Saul 
join Absalom. Shimei curses David, as he passes on his way. But 
Hushai, David’s friend, joins Absalom in order to befriend David. 
By which means David safely crosses the Jordan to Mahanaim, 
where he prepares his forces to meet Absalom’s. Absalom’s forces 
are routed, and Joab kills him. The tidings are brought to David, 
and he mourns for his best loved son. (Ch. xii, 26ff; xiii-xiv, 24; 
Xiv, 28-xix, 9a.) 

Materials: The same as for the preceding section. 


Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and took the 
royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David, and said: I have 
fought against Rabbah, yea, I have taken the city of waters. Now 
therefore, gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against 
the city, and take it; lest I take the city, and it be called by my name. 
And David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah, and 
fought against it and took it. And he took the crown of Maleam from 
off his head; and the weight thereof was a talent of gold, and in it 
were precious stones; and it was set on David’s head. And he brought 
forth the spoil of the city, exceeding much. And he brought forth the 
people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows 
of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the 
brick-kiln; and thus did he unto all the Ammonites. And David and 
all the people returned unto Jerusalem. ; 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 127 


Now Absalom the son of David had a fair sister whose name was 
Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her. And Amnon was so 
distressed that he fell sick because of his sister Tamar; for she was a 
virgin, and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything unto her. But 
Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, 
David’s brother; and Jonadab was a very subtle man. And he said 
unto him: Why, O son of the king, art thou thus becoming leaner 
from day to day? Wilt thou not tell me? And Amnon said unto him: 
I love Tamar, Absalom’s sister. And Jonadab said unto him: Lay thee 
down on thy bed and feign thyself sick; and when thy father cometh to 
see thee, say unto him: Let my sister Tamar come, I pray thee, and 
give me bread to eat, and dress the food in my sight, that I may see it 
and eat it at her hand. So Amnon lay down and feigned himself sick; 
and when the king was come to see him, Amnon said unto the king: 
Let my sister Tamar come, I pray thee, and make a couple of cakes in 
my sight, that I might eat at her hand. 

Then David sent home to Tamar, saying: Go now to thy brother 
Amnon’s house, and dress him food. So Tamar went to her brother 
Amnon’s house; and he was lying down. And she took dough and 
kneaded it, and make cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes. And she 
took the pan and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. And 
Amnon said unto Tamar: Have all men out from me. And they went out 
every man from him. And Amnon said unto Tamar: Bring the food into 
the chamber, that I may eat of thy hand. And Tamar took the cakes which 
she had made, and brought them into the chamber of Amnon her brother. 
And when she had brought them near unto him to eat, he took hold of 
her, and said unto her: Come, lie with me, my sister. And _ she 
answered him: Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing 
ought to be done in Israel. Do not this wanton deed. And I, whither 
shall I carry my shame? And as for thee, thou wilt be as one of the 
base men in Israel. Now, therefore, speak unto the king; for he will 
not withhold me from thee. Howbeit, he would not hearken to her 
voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her. 

Then Amnon hated her with exceeding great hatred; for the hatred 
with which he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had 
loved her. And Amnon said unto her: Arise, begone. And she said 
unto him: Not so, because this great wrong in putting me forth is 
worse than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not 
hearken unto her. Then he called his servant that ministered unto him, 
and said: Put this woman out from me now, and bolt the door after 
her. And his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her. 
And Tamar put ashes on her head, and went her way crying aloud as 
she went. And Absalom her brother said unto her: Hath Amnon thy 
brother been with thee? but now hold thy peace, my sister; take not 
this thing to heart. So Tamar remained desolate in her brother’s 
house. 

But when king David heard these things, he was very wroth. And 
Absalom spake unto Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated 
Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar. And it came to pass 
after two full years, that Absalom had sheep-shearers in Baal-hazor 
which is beside Ephraim; and Absalom invited all the king’s sons. And 
Absalom came to the king and said: Behold now, thy servant hath 
sheep-shearers; let the king, I pray thee, and his servants go with thy 
servant. And the king said: Nay, my son, let us not all go, lest we be 
burdensome to thee. And he pressed him; however he would not go, 


128 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


but blessed him. Then said Absalom: If not, I pray thee, let my 
brother Amnon go with us. And the king said unto him: Why should 
he go with thee? And Absalom pressed him, and he let Amnon, and 
all the king’s sons go with him. And Absalom commanded his servants, 
saying: Mark ye now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine; and 
when I say unto you, Smite Ammon! then kill him, fear not; have I 
not commanded you? be courageous, yea, be valiant. And the servants 
of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the 
king’s sons arose, and every man gat him upon his mule, and fled. 

And it came to pass, while they were in the way, that the tidings 
came to David, saying: Absalom hath slain all the king’s sons, and 
there is not one of them left. Then the king arose and rent his gar- 
ments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their 
clothes rent. And Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David’s brother, 
answered and said: Let not my lord suppose that they have killed all 
the young men the king’s sons; for Amnon only is dead; for by the 
appointment of Absalom this hath been determined from the day that 
he forced his sister Tamar. Now therefore, let not my lord the king take 
the thing to heart, to think that all the king’s sons are dead; for 
Amnon only is dead. 

But Absalom fled. And the young man that kept the watch lifted 
up his eyes and looked; and behold, there came much people running 
in a roundabout way by the hillside. And Jonadab said unto the king: 
Behold, the king’s sons are come; as thy servant said, so it is. And it 
came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of speaking, that behold, 
the king’s sons came, and lifted up their voice and wept; and 
the king also, and all his servants wept very sore. 

Then Absalom fled, and went to Talmai, the son of Ammihud, king 
of Geshur. And David mourned for his son every day. 

So Absalom fled, and went to Geshur, and was there three years. 
And the soul of David failed with longing for Absalom; for he was 
comforted for Amnon, seeing he was dead. 

Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart was 
toward Absalom. And Joab sent to Tekoa and fetched thence a wise 
woman, and said unto her: I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, 
and put on mourning apparel, I pray thee, and anoint not thyself with 
oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead; and 
go in unto the king, and speak on this manner to him. So Joab put 
the words in her mouth. 

And when the woman of Tekoa spake to the king, she fell on her 
face to the ground, and prostrated herself, and said: Help, O King! 
And the king said unto her: What aileth thee? And she answered: 
Of a truth I am a widow, my husband being dead. And thy handmaid 
had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was 
none to part them, but the one smote the other and killed him. And 
behold, the whole family is risen against thy handmaid and have said: 
Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him for the life 
of his brother whom he slew, and so destroy the heir also. Thus will 
they quench my coal which is left, and will leave to my husband neither 
name nor remainder upon the earth. 

And the king said unto the woman: Go to thy house, and I will give 
charge concerning thee. And the woman of Tekoa said unto the king: 
My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father’s house; and 
the king and his throne be guiltless. And the king said: Whosoever 
saith aught unto thee, bring him unto me, and he shall not touch thee 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 12H 


any more. Then said. she: I pray thee, let the king remember Yahweh 
thy God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they 
destroy my son. And he said: As Yahweh liveth, there shall not a 
hair of thy son fall to the ground. 

Then the woman said: Let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak a 
word more to the king. And he said: Say on. And the woman said: 
Wherefore then hast thou devised such a thing against the people of 
God? for in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty; in 
that the king doth not fetch home again his banished son. For we 
must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be 
gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person; but let him 
devise means, that he that is banished be not an outcast from him. 
Now then, seeing that I am come to speak this word unto my lord the 
king, it is because the people have made me afraid; and thy handmaid 
said: I will now speak unto the king; it may be that the king will 
perform the request of his servant. For the king will hear, to deliver 
his handmaid from the hand of the man who would destroy me and 
my son together out of the inheritance of God. Then thine handmaid 
said: The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable; for as 
a messenger of God, so is the king to discern good and bad; therefore 
Yahweh thy God will be with thee. 

Then the king answered and said unto the woman: Hide not, I 
pray, from me the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said: 
Let my lord the king now speak. And the king said: Is not the hand 
of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said: As 
thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or 
to the left from aught that my lord the king hath spoken; for thy 
servant Joab, he bade me and he put all these words in the mouth of 
thy handmaid; to change the face of the matter hath thy servant Joab 
done this thing; and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of a 
messenger of God, to know all things that are in the earth. 

Then the king said unto Joab: Behold now, I have granted this 
request; go, therefore, bring the young man Absalom back. And Joab 
fell to the ground on his face, and prostrated himself, and blessed the 
king; and Joab said: To-day thy servant knoweth that I have found 
grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king hath performed 
the request of thy servant. So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and 
brought Absalom to Jerusalem. And the king said: Let him turn to 
his own house but let him not see my face. So Absalom turned to his 
own house, and saw not the face of the king. 

So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and he saw not the 
king’s face. Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but 
he would not come to him; and he sent a second time, but he would not 
come. Therefore he said unto his servants: See, Joab’s field is near 
mine, and he hath barley there; go and set it on fire. And Absalom’s 
servants set the field on fire. Then Joab arose and came to Absalom 
unto his house, and said unto him: Wherefore have thy servants set 
my field on fire? And Absalom answered Joab: Behold, I sent unto 
thee, saying: Come hither that I may send thee unto the king, to say: 
Wherefore am I come from Geshur? It were better for me to be there 
still. Now therefore, let me see the king’s face; and if there be iniquity 
in me, let him kill me. So Joab came to the king and told him; and 
when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed him- 
self on his face to the ground before the king; and the king kissed 
Absalom. 


130 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Now it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him a 
chariot and horses and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom 
used to rise up early and stand beside the way of the gate; and it was 
so, that when any man came to the king for judgment, that Absalom 
called unto him and said: Of what city art thou? And if he said: 
Thy servant is of such a one of the tribes of Israel, Absalom would say 
unto him: See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man 
deputed of the king to hear thee. He said moreover: O that I were 
made judge in the land, that every man who hath any suit or cause 
might come unto me, and I would do him justice! And it was so, 
that when any man came nigh to prostrate himself before him, he put 
forth his hand, and took hold of him and kissed him. And on this 
manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. 
Thus Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. 

And it came to pass, at the end of his fortieth year, that Absalom 
said unto the king: I pray thee, let me go and pay the vow which I 
have vowed unto Yahweh, in Hebron. For thy servant did vow a vow 
while I abode at Geshur in Aram, saying: If Yahweh will indeed 
bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve Yahweh. And the king 
said: Goin peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent 
spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying: As soon as ye hear 
the sound of the horn, then ye shall say: Absalom is king in Hebron. 
And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, that were 
invited, and went in their simplicity; and they knew not anything. 
And Absalom sent for Ahithophel, the Gileadite, David’s counselor, from 
his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the con- 
spiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom. 

And there came a messenger to David, saying: The hearts of the 
men of Israel are gone after Absalom. And David said unto all the 
servants that were with him in Jerusalem: Arise and let us flee, for 
else none of us shall escape from Absalom; make speed to depart, lest 
he overtake us quickly and bring down evil upon us, and smite the 
city with the edge of the sword. And the king’s servants said unto the 
king: Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever the king my 
lord shall choose. And the king went forth, and all his household 
with him. And the king left ten women that were concubines to keep 
the house. And the king went forth, and all the people after him; and 
they tarried in Beth-merhak. And all his servants passed on beside him; 
and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six 
hundred men that came after him from Gath, passed on before the king. 

Then said the king to Ittai, the Gittite: Wherefore goest thou also 
with us? return and abide with the king; for thou art a foreigner, and 
also an exile from thine own place. Whereas thou camest but yester- 
day, should I this day make thee go up and down with us, seeing I go 
whither I may? Return thou and take back thy brethren with thee in 
kindness and truth. And Ittai answered the king, and said: As Yahweh 
liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the 
king shall be, whether for death or for life, even there also will thy 
servant be. And David said to Ittai: Go and pass over. And Ittai the 
Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were 
with him. And all the country wept with a loud voice as all the people 
passed over; and as the king passed over the brook Kidron, all the 
people passed over toward the way of the wilderness. 

And lo, Zadok also came, bearing the ark of the covenant of God; and 
they set down the ark of God until all the people had done passing out 


6 
) 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 131 


of the city. And the king said unto Zadok: Carry back the ark of God 
into the city; if I shall find favor in the eyes of Yahweh, He will bring 
me back, and show me both it and His habitation; but if He say thus: 
I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I; let Him do as seemeth 
good unto Him. The king also said unto Zadok the priest: Seest thou? 
return into the city in peace and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz, thy 
son, and. Jonathan, the son of Abiathar. See, I will tarry in the plains 
of the wilderness until there cometh word from you to announce to 
me. Zadok therefore, and Abiathar, carried the ark back to Jerusalem, 
and they abode there. 

And David went up by the ascent of Olivet and wept as he went up; 
and he had his head covered, and went barefoot; and all the people 
that were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, 
weeping as they went up. And one told David, saying: Ahithophel is 
among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said: O Yahweh, 
turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And it came to pass, 
that when David was come to the top of the ascent, where he was wont 
to worship God, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his 
coat rent and earth upon his head. And David said unto him: If thou 
passest on with me, then thou wilt be a burden unto me; but if thou 
will return to the city, and say unto Absalom: I will be thy servant, 
O king; then thou wilt defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel. And 
hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar, the priests? there- 
fore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king’s 
house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Behold, they 
have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son, and Jona- 
than, Abiathar’s son; and by them ye shall send unto me everything 
that ye shall hear. So Hushai, David’s friend, came into the city; 
and Absalom was at the point of entering Jerusalem. 

And when David was a little past the top, behold, Ziba, the servant 
of Mephibosheth, met him with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them 
two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and a 
hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. And the king said unto 
Ziba: What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said: The asses are for 
the king’s household to ride on, and the bread and summer fruit for 
the young men to eat, and the wine that such as are faint in the wilder- 
ness may drink. And the king said: And where is thy master’s son? 
And Ziba said unto the king: Behold, he abideth in Jerusalem; for he 
said, To-day will the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my 
father. Then said the king to Ziba: Behold, thine is all that pertaineth 
to Mephibosheth. And Ziba said: I prostrate myself; let me _ find 
favor in thy sight, my lord O king. 

And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, there came out 
thence a man of the family of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son 
of Gera; he came out and kept on cursing as he came. And he cast 
stones at David, and at all the servants of king David; and all the people 
and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And 
thus said Shimei when he cursed: Begone, begone, thou bloody man 
and base fellow! Yahweh hath returned upon thee all the blood of the 
house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and Yahweh hath 
delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son; and behold, 
thou art taken in thine own mischief, because thou art a man of blood. 

Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah to the king: Why should this 
dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray you, and take 
off his head. And the king said: What have I to do with you, ye 


132 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse because Yahweh hath said unto him: 
Curse David; who then shall say: Wherefore hast thou done so? And 
David said to Abishai, and to all his servants: Behold! my son, who 
came forth of my body, seeketh my life; how much more this Ben- 
jamite now? Let him alone, and let him curse, for Yahweh hath bidden 
him. It may be that Yahweh will look into my eye, and that Yahweh 
will requite me with good for his cursing this day. So David and his 
men went by the road, and Shimei went along on the hillside over 
against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him and cast 
dust. And the king and all the people that were with him became 
weary, and refreshed themselves there. 

Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jeru- 
salem, and Ahithophel with him. And it came to pass, when Hushai_ 
the Archite, David’s friend, was come unto Absalom, that Hushai said 
unto Absalom: Long live the king, Long live the king! And Absalom 
said unto Hushai: Is this thy kindness to thy friend? why wentest thou 
not with thy friend? And Hushai said unto Absalom: Nay, but whom 
Yahweh and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his will 
I be, and with him will I abide. And again, whom should I serve? 
should I not serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in thy 
father’s presence, so will I be in thy presence. 

Then said Absalom to Ahithophel: Give your counsel what we shall 
do. And Ahithophel said unto Absalom: Go in unto thy father’s con- 
cubines, that he hath left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear 
that thou art abhorred of thy father; then will the hands of all that are 
with thee be strong. So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the 
house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight 
of all Israel. Now the counsel of Ahithophel which he counselled in 
those days was as if a man inquired of the word of God; so was the 
counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom. 

Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom: Let me now choose out 
twelve thousand men, and [I will arise and course after David this night; 
and I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and 
will make him afraid; and all the people that are with him shall flee, 
and I will smite the king only; and I will bring back all the people 
unto thee; when all the people shall have returned save the man whom 
thou seekest, all the people will be at peace. And the saying pleased 
Absalom well and all the elders of Israel. 

Then said Absalom: Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us 
hear likewise what he says. And when Hushai was come to Absalom, 
Absalom spake unto him, saying: Ahithophel hath spoken after this 
fashion; shall we do after his saying? if not, speak thou. And Hushai 
said unto Absalom: The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not 
good. Hushai said moreover: Thou knowest thy father and his men 
that they are mighty men, and they are embittered in their minds, as 
a bear robbed of her whelps in the field. And thy father is a man of 
war, and will not lodge with his people. Behold, he is hid now in some 
pit, or in some other place; and it will come to pass, when they fall 
upon them at the first, whosoever heareth it shall say: There is a 
slaughter among the people that follow Absalom. Then even he that 
is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for 
all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and mighty men 
are with him. But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together unto 
thee, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for 
multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person. So shall 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 133 


we come upon him in some place where he shall be found; and we will 
light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground; and of him and of all 
the men that are with him we will not leave so much as one. Moreover, 
if he withdraw himself into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes 
to that city, and we will draw it into the valley until there be not one 
small stone found there. And Absalom and all the men of Israel said: 
The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahi- 
thophel. For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of 
Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil upon Absalom. 

Then said Hushai to Zadok and to Abiathar, the priests: Thus and 
thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus 
and thus have I counselled. Now, therefore, send quickly and tell David, 
saying: Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but in 
any wise pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people 
that are with him. Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying by En- 
rogel, that they might not be seen coming into the city; and a maid 
went out and told them; and they went and told king David. Never- 
theless, a lad saw them and told Absalom; but they went away both of 
them quickly, and came to a man’s house in Bahurim which had a 
well in its court, into which they went down. And the woman took and 
spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and spread ground corn 
thereon; and the thing was not known. And when Absalom’s servants 
came to the woman to the house they said: Where are Ahimaaz and 
Jonathan? And the woman said unto them: they are gone over the 
brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, 
they returned to Jerusalem. 

And it came to pass after they were departed, that they came up 
out of the well and went and told David, and they said unto him: 
Arise, and pass quickly over the water, for thus hath Ahithophel coun- 
selled against you. Then David arose, and all the people which were 
with him, and they passed over the Jordan; by the morning light there 
lacked not one of them that was not gone over the Jordan. 

Now when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he 
saddled his ass, and arose and gat him home to his city, and set his 
house in order and strangled himself; and he died, and was buried in 
the sepulchre of his father. 

When David was come to Mahanaim, Absalom passed over the 
Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. And Absalom had set 
Amasa over the host instead of Joab. (Now Amasa was the son of a 
man whose name was Ithra the Jezreelite, who married Abigail, the 
daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.) And Israel and 
Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead. 

And it came to pass that when David was come to Mahanaim, Shob, 
the son of Nahash of Rabbah, of the Ammonites, and Machir the son of 
Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought 
beds and basins and earthen vessels, and wheat and barley and meal, 
and parched corn and beans and parched pulse, and honey and curd 
and cheese of kine and sheep for David, and for the people that were 
with him to eat; for they said: The people is hungry and faint and 
thirsty in the wilderness. 

And David numbered the people that were with him, and set cap- 
tains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. And David sent 
forth the people, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part 
under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and a 
third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said unto 


134 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


the people: I will surely go forth with you myself also. But the people 
said: Thou shalt not go forth; for if we flee away, they will not care 
for us; neither if half of us die will they care for us; but thou art 
worth ten thousand of us; therefore it is better that thou be ready to 
succor us out of the city. And the king said unto them: What seemeth 
you best, I will do. And the king stood by the gate-side, and all the 
people came out by hundreds and by thousands. And the king com- 
manded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying: Deal gently for my sake 
with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard 
when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom. 

So the people went out into the field against Israel; and the battle 
was in the wood of Ephraim; and the people of Israel were smitten 
there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there 
that day of twenty thousand men. For the battle there was spread over 
the face of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that 
day than the sword devoured. 

And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. And Absalom 
was riding upon his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs 
of a great terebinth, and he was taken up between the heaven and the 
earth; and the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man 
saw it and told Joab, and said: Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in a 
terebinth. And Joab answered the man that told him: And behold, thou 
sawest it; and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? I 
would have given thee ten pieces of silver, and a girdle. And the man 
said to Joab: Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in 
my hand, yet would not I put forth my hand against the king’s son; 
for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying: 
Beware that none touch the young man Absalom. Otherwise I should 
have wrought falsehood against mine own life; for there is no matter 
hid from the king; then thou thyself wouldst have stood aloof. Then ~ 
said Joab: I may not tarry with thee. And he took three darts in his 
hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet 
alive in the midst of the terebinth. And ten young men that bare 
Joab’s armor compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him. 

And Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing 
after Israel; for Joab held back the people. And they took Absalom, 
and cast him into the great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very 
great heap of stones; and all Israel fled, every one to his tent. Now 
Absalom in his lifetime had taken and raised up for himself the pillar 
which is in the king’s dale; for he said: I have no son to keep my 
name in remembrance; and he called the pillar after his own name, 
and it is called Absalom’s place unto this day. 

Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok: Let me now run and bear 
the king tidings, how that Yahweh hath avenged him of his enemies. 
And Joab said unto him: Thou shalt not be the bearer of tidings this 
day, but thou shalt bear tidings another day; but this day thou shalt 
bear no tidings, forasmuch as the king’s son is dead. Then said Joab to 
the Cushite: Go, tell the king what thou hast seen. And the Cushite 
bowed down to Joab, and ran. Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet 
again to Joab: But, come what may, let me, I pray, also run after the 
Cushite. And Joab said: Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing 
that thou wilt have no reward for the tidings? But, howsoever (he 
said), let me run. And he said unto him: Run. Then Ahimaaz ran 
by the way of the plain, and overran the Cushite. 

Now David sat between the two gates; and the watchman went up 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 135 


to the roof of the gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes and looked, 
and behold, a man running alone. And the watchman cried, and told 
the king. And the king said: If he be alone, there is tidings in his 
mouth. And he came apace, and drew near. And the watchman saw 
another man running; and the watchman called unto the porter, and 
said: Behold, another man runneth alone. And the king said: He also 
bringeth tidings. And the watchman said: Methinks, the running of 
the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok. And 
the king said: He is a good man, and he bringeth good tidings. 

And Ahimaaz called and said to the king: All is well. And he 
bowed down before the king with his face to the earth, and said: Blessed 
be Yahweh thy God, who hath delivered up the men that lifted up their 
hand against my lord the king. And the king said: Is it well with the 
young man Absalom? And Ahimaaz answered: When Joab sent the 
king’s servant and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew 
not what it was. And the king said: Turn aside, and stand here. And 
he turned aside, and stood still. 

And behold, the Cushite came; and the Cushite said: Tidings for 
my lord the king; for Yahweh hath avenged thee this day of all them 
that rose up against thee. And the king said unto the Cushite: Is it 
well with the young man Absalom? And the Cushite answered: The 
enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise up against thee to do 
thee hurt, be as that young man is. 

And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber above 
the gate, and wept; and as he wept, thus he said: O my son Absalom, 
my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, 
my son, my son! 

And it was told Joab: Behold, the king weepeth and mourneth for 
Absalom. And the victory that day was turned into mourning unto all 
the people; for the people heard say that day: The king grieveth for 
his son. And the people gat them by stealth that day into the city, as 
people that are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. But the 
king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice: O my son, 
Absalom, O my son, my son! And Joab came into the house to the 
king, and said: Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, 
who this day have saved thy life, and the lives of thy sons and of thy 
daughters, and the lives of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines; in 
that thou lovest them that hate thee, and hatest them that love thee. 
For thou hast declared this day, that princes and servants are naught 
unto thee; for this day I perceive that, if Absalom had lived and all we 
had died this day, then it had pleased thee well. Now, therefore, arise, 
go forth, and speak to the heart of thy servants; for I swear by Yahweh 
if thou go not forth, there will not tarry a man with thee this night; 
and that will be worse unto thee than all the evil that hath happened 
unto thee from thy youth until now. 

Then the king arose and sat in the gate. And they told unto all the 
people, saying: Behold, the king sitteth in the gate; and all the people 
came before the king. 


136 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 

SECTION III.—AIl Israel plans to bring David back to Jerusalem. The 
tribe of Judah forestalls the rest, and with them come Shimei and 
Ziba, the Benjamites, and their following. But Sheba, the Ben- 
jamite, incites the northern tribes through their jealousy of Judah 
to abandon David. David sends Joab with the men of Judah to put 
down the revolt. He conciliates the disaffected tribes, and causes 
the death of Sheba. David reconstructs his Cabinet. How David 
pays the blood-penalty demanded by the Gibeonites, the first Ca- 
naanite allies of Joshua, for Saul’s breach of their covenant. The 
story of Rizpah. The last attack of the Philistines; David resigns 
his leadership of the army. He takes a census of all Israel, in spite 
of Joab’s protest. Having made it, he repents of this trespass upon 
tribal liberty. Is rebuked by the prophet Gad. In sign of repent- 
ance, he builds an altar for all Israel on the site, later occupied by 
the Temple of Solomon. The last days of David. Adonijah, his 
oldest living son, assumes the state of heir-apparent. Nathan stirs 
Bath-sheba to obtain the succession for Solomon. David calls for 
Zadok the priest to anoint Solomon king. Adonijah seeks sanctuary 
at the new altar, from which Solomon summons him, and sends 
him home in peace. David gives Solomon his last admonitions, 
and dies. He is buried in Jerusalem. (2 Sam’l, xix, 9b-44; xx-xxi, 
1OTEXRIV (a4enS-2os Weel Oa) 
Materials: A wealth of ‘oral tradition concerning the Hero-king; a 
“Chron. of King David”; the “Acts of Nathan” and “Acts of Gad”: 
Poems on the “Wars of Yahweh”; and the State Records. Possibly 
also the “Book of Jashar”. 


Now Israel had fled, every man to his tent. And all the people were 
at strife among all the tribes of Israel, saying: The king delivered us 
out of the hands of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hands of 
the Philistines; and now he is fled out of the land from Absalom; and 
Absalom whom we anointed over us is dead in battle. Now, therefore, 
why speak ye not a word of bringing back the king? And king David 
sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying: Speak to the elders 
of Judah, and say: Why are ye the last to bring the king back to his 
house? Ye are my brethren, ye are my bone and my flesh; wherefore 
then should ye be the last to bring back the king? And say ye to 
Amasa: Art thou not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more 
also, if thou be not captain of the host before me continually in the 
place of Joab. And he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even 
as the heart of one man; so that they sent unto the king, saying: 
Return thou, and all they servants. 

So the king returned and came to the Jordan. And Judah came to 
Gilgal to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan. And 
Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who was of Bahurim, made 
haste and came down with the men of Benjamin to meet king David. 
And there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him; and Ziba, the 
servant of the house of Saul and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants 
with him. And they rushed into the Jordan before the king. And the 
ferry-boat passed to and fro to carry over the king’s household, and to 
do what he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before 
the king, as he was come over Jordan; and he said unto the king: Let 
not the king impute iniquity unto me; neither do thou remember that 
which thy servant did iniquitously the day that my lord the king went 
out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to heart. For thy 
servant doth know that I have sinned; therefore have I come, indeed, this 
day, the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord 
the king. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 137 


But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, answered and said: Shall not 
Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed Yahweh’s anointed? 
And David said: What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that 
ye should this day be adversaries unto me? shall there any man be put 
to death this day in Israel? for do not I know that I am this day king 
over Israel? And the king said to Shimei: Thou shalt not die. And 
the king sware unto him. 

And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and 
he had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his 
clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in 
peace. And it came to pass, when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the 
king, that the king said unto him: Wherefore wentest thou not with 
me, Mephibosheth? And he answered: My lord, O king! my servant 
deceived me; for thy servant said: I will saddle me an ass, that I may 
ride thereon, and go with the king, because thy servant is lame. And 
he hath slandered thy servant unto my lord, the king. But my lord the 
king is as a messenger of God; do therefore what is good in thine eyes. 
For all my father’s house were deserving of death at the hand of my lord 
the king; yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at 
thine own table. What right have I yet, therefore; or why should I ery 
any more unto the king? And the knig said unto him: Why speakest 
thou any more of thy matters? I have said: Thou and Ziba divide 
the land. .And Mephibosheth said. unto the king: Yea, let him 
take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come in peace unto his 
own. house. 

And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he passed 
on to the Jordan with the king, to bring him on the way over the Jordan. 
Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even four-score years old; and he 
had provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim; for 
he was a very great man. And the king said to Barzillai: Come over 
with me, and I will sustain thee with me in Jerusalem. And Barzillai 
said unto the king: How many are the days of the years of my life, 
that I should go up with the king unto Jerusalem? I am this day four- 
score years old; can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant 
taste what I eat, or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of sing- 
ing men and women? wherefore then should I be a burden unto my lord 
the king? Thy servant would but just go over the Jordan with the 
king; and why should the king recompense it to me with such a reward? 
Let thy servant go back, I pray thee, that I may die in mine own city, 
by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold thy servant 
Chimham, let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him that 
which shall seem good unto thee; and whatsoever thou shalt require of 
me, that will I do for thee. And the king said: Chimham shall go 
with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good unto thee; 
and whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that will I do for thee. 

And all the people went over Jordan, and the king went over; and 
the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him; and he returned to his own 

lace. 
. So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him; 
and all the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half of the 
people of Israel. And behold, all the people of Israel came to the king, 
and said unto the king: Why have our brethren the men of Judah 
stolen thee away, and brought the king and his household over the 
Jordan, and all David’s men with him? And all the men of Judah, 
answered the men of Israel: Because the king is near of kin to us; 


138 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


wherefore then are ye angry for this matter? have we eaten at all of 
the king’s cost, or hath any gift been given us? And the men of Israel 
answered the men of Judah, and said: We have ten parts in the 
king, and we have also more right in David than ye; why then did ye 
despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back 
our king? And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the 
words of the men of Israel. 

Now there happened to be there a man of Belial whose name was 
Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite; and he blew the horn and said: 
We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son 
of Jesse; every man to his tents, O Israel. So all the men of Israel 
went up from following David and followed Sheba, the son of Bichri; 
but the men of Judah did cleave unto their king, from the Jordan even 
to Jerusalem. 

And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the 
ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and 
put them in ward and provided them with sustenance, but went not in 
unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death in 
widowhood. 

Then said the king to Amasa: (Call me the men of Judah together 
within three days, and be thou here present. So Amasa went to call 
the men of Judah together; but he tarried longer than the set time 
which he had appointed him. And David said to Abishai: Now will 
Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom; take thou 
thy lord’s servants and pursue ‘after him; lest he get him fortified cities 
and escape out of our sight. And there went out after him Joab’s men, 
and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and 
they went out of Jerusalem to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. 
When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to 
meet them. And Joab was girded with his apparel of war that he had 
put on, and thereon was a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins 
in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out. And Joab said 
to Amasa: Is it well with thee, my brother? And Joab took Amasa 
by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. But Amasa took no 
heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand; so he smote him therewith 
in the groin, and shed out his bowels on the ground, and struck him not 
again; and he died. . 

And Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of 
Bichri. And there stood by him [Amasa] one of Joab’s young men, and 
said: He that favoreth Joab and he that is for David, follow Joab. And 
Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. And 
when the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out 
of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him. When he 
was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to 
pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. And he went through all the 
tribes of Israel unto Abel, and to Beth-Maacah, and they cast up a 
mound against the city, and it stood in the moat; and all the people 
that were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down. 

Then cried a wise woman out of the city: Hear, Hear! say, I pray 
you, unto Joab: Come near hither, that I may speak with thee. And 
he came near unto her; and the woman said: Art thou Joab? And he 
answered: [I am. Then she said: Hear the words of thy handmaid. 
And he answered: I hear. Then she spake, saying: They were wont 
to say of old time, saying: They shall surely ask counsel at Abel; and 
so they ended the matter. We are peaceable and loyal in Israel; seekest 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 139 


thou to destroy a city and a mother in Israel? Why wilt thou swallow 
up the inheritance of Yahweh? And Joab answered and said: Far be 
it from me that I should swallow up or destroy. The matter is not so. 
But a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by 
name, hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. 
Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said 
unto Joab: Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. 
Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom. And they 
cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it down to Joab. 
And he blew the horn, and they were dispersed from the city, every man 
to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king. 

Now Joab was over all the host of Israel; and Benaiah the son of 
Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and Adoram was 
over the levy; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder; and 
Sheva was scribe; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Ira also 
the Jairite was chief minister unto David. 

Now there was a famine in the days of David three years, year 
after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. And Yahweh said: 
It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the 
Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them 
(now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel but of the rem- 
nant of the Ammonites; and the Children of Israel had sworn unto 
them; and Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the Children of 
Israel and of Judah). Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites: 
What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make atonement, that 
ye may bless the inheritance of Yahweh? And the Gibeonites said 
unto him: We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house, 
neither for us shalt thou slay any man in Israel. And he said: What 
ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they answered the king: The 
man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be 
destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,—let seven 
men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto 
Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh. And the king said: 
I will give them. 

But the king spared Mephimosheth the son of Jonathan the son of 
Saul, because of Yahweh’s oath that was between them, between David 
and Jonathan the son of Saul. But David took the two sons of Rizpah, 
whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons 
of Michal whom she bare unto Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meho- 
lathite; and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and 
they hanged them in the mountain before Yahweh; and they fell all 
seven together; and they were put to death in the days of harvest,—in 
the first days, at the beginning of barley-harvest. 

And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for 
her on the rock from the beginning of harvest until water was poured 
upon them from heaven, and she suffered neither the birds of the air to 
rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the fields by night. And it was 
told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had 
done. And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of 
Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them 
from the open square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged 
them, in the day that the Philistines slew Saul in Gilboa; and he 
brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan 
his son; and they gathered the bones of them who were hanged. And 
they buried the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son in the country of 


140 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Benjamin in Zela, in the sepulchre of Kish, his father; and they per- 
formed all that the king commanded. And after that, God was entreated 
for the land. 

And the Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down 
and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines; and 
David waxed faint. And Ishi-benob, who was of the sons of the giant, 
the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in 
weight, he, being girded with new armor, thought to have slain David. 
But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, succored him, and smote the Philistine 
and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying: Thou 
shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the lamp 
of Israel. 

And again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel; and He 
moved David against them, saying: Go, number Israel and Judah. 
And the king said to Joab, the captain of the host, who was with him: 
Go, now, to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to 
Beer-sheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the sum of 
the people. And Joab said unto the king: Now Yahweh thy God add 
unto the people, how many soever they may be, a hundredfold; and may 
the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why doth my lord the king 
delight in this thing? Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed 
against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the 
captains of the host went out from the presence of the king to number 
the people of Israel. And they passed over the Jordan, and pitched in 
Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley 
of Gad, and unto Jazer; then they came to Gilead, and to the land of 
Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan, and round about to Zidon 
and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites; and they went 
out to the south of Judah at Beer-sheba. 

So when they had gone to and fro through all the land, they came to 
Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave 
up the sum of the numbering of the people unto the king. And there 
were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; 
and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. 

And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. 
And David said unto Yahweh: I have sinned greatly in what I have 
done; but now, O Yahweh, put away, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of 
thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. And when David rose up 
in the morning, the word of Yahweh came unto the prophet Gad, 
David’s seer, saying: Go and speak unto David: Thus saith Yahweh: 
I lay upon thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it 
unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him: 
Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou 
flee for three months before thine enemies while they pursue thee? or 
that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? Now advise thee and con- 
sider what answer I shall return to Him that sent me. And David said 
unto Gad: I am in a great strait; let us fall now into the hand of Yah- 
weh, for His mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man. 

So Yahweh sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to 
the time appointed and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer- 
sheba seventy thousand men. And when the messenger of death 
stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh repented 
Him of the evil, and said to the messenger that destroyed the people: It 
is enough; now stay thy hand. And the messenger of Yahweh was by 
the threshing-floor of Araunah, the Jebusite. And David spake unto Yah- 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 141 


weh when he saw the messenger that smote the people, and said: Lo, 
I have sinned, and I have done iniquitously; but these sheep, what have 
they done? Let Thy hand, I pray Thee, be against me, and against my 
father’s house. 

And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him: Go up, rear an 
altar unto Yahweh in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. And 
David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded. 
And Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming 
on toward him; and Araunah went out, and bowed down before the 
king, with his face to the ground. And Araunah said: Wherefore is 
my lord the king come to his servant? And David said: To buy the 
threshing-floor of thee, to build an altar unto Yahweh, that the plague 
may be stayed from the people. And Araunah said unto David: Let 
my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him; behold 
the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing instruments and the 
gear of the oxen for the wood. All this doth Araunah give unto the 
king. And Araunah said unto the king: Yahweh, thy God, accept 
thee. And the king said unto Araunah: Nay, but I will verily buy it 
of thee at a price; neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto Yahweh my 
God which cost me nothing. 

So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels 
of silver. And David built there an altar unto Yahweh, and offered 
burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the 
land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. 

Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him 
with clothes but he could get no heat. Wherefore his servants said 
unto him: Let there be sought a young virgin, and let her stand before 
the king and cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the 
king may get heat. So they sought throughout all the borders of Israel 
and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. And 
the damsel was very fair, and she cherished the king and ministered 
unto him; but the king knew her not. 

Now, Adonijah, the son of Haggith, exalted himself, saying: I 
will be king; and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty 
men to run before him. And his father had not grieved him in all his 
life by saying: Why hast thou done so? and he was also a very goodly 
man; and he was born after Absalom. And he conferred with Joab the 
son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest; and they that followed 
Adonijah helped. But Zadok the priest and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, 
and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei and Rei, and the mighty men that 
belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. And Adonijah slew sheep 
and oxen and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by En-rogel; 
and he ealled all his brethren the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah 
the king’s servants; but Nathan the prophet and Benaiah and the mighty 
men, and Solomon his brother, he called not. 

Then Nathan spake unto Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon, say- 
ing: Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign, 
and David our lord knoweth it not? Now therefore, come, let me, I 
pray thee, give thee counsel, that thou may save thine own life and 
the life of thy son Solomon. Go and get thee in unto king David, and 
say unto him: Didst thou not, my lord, O king, swear unto thy hand- 
maid, saying: Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he 
shall sit upon my throne? Then why doth Adonijah reign? Behold, 
while thou yet talkest there with the king, I also will come in after 
thee, and confirm thy words. 


142 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And Bath-sheba went in unto the king into the chamber. (Now 
the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto 
the king.) And Bath-sheba bowed, and prostrated herself before the 
king. And the king said: What wouldst thou? And she said unto 
him: My lord, thou didst swear by Yahweh thy God unto thine hand- 
maid: Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit 
upon my throne. And now, behold, Adonijah reigneth; and thou, my 
lord the king, knowest it not. And he hath slain oxen and fatlings and 
sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of the king, and Abia- 
thar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host; but Solomon thy 
servant hath he not called. And thou, my lord the king, the eyes of 
all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit 
on the throne of my lord the king after him. Otherwise it will come 
to pass, when my lord shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son 
shall be counted offenders. 

And lo, while she was yet talking with the king, Nathan the prophet 
came in. And they told the king, saying: Behold, Nathan the prophet. 
And when he was come in before the king, he bowed down before the 
king with his face to the ground. And Nathan said: My lord, O king, 
hast thou said: Adonijah, my son, shall reign after me, and he shall 
sit upon my throne? For he is gone down this day, and hath slain oxen 
and sheep and fatlings in abundance, and hath called all the king’s 
sons and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and behold, 
they eat and drink before him, and say: God save king Adonijah. But 
me, even me thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of 
Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not called. Is this thing 
done by my lord the king, and thou hast not declared unto thy servant 
who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him? 

Then king David answered and said: Call me Bath-sheba. And she 
came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king. And the king 
sware and said: As Yahweh liveth who hath redeemed my soul out of 
all adversity, verily, as I sware unto thee by Yahweh, the God of Israel, 
saying: Assuredly, Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall 
sit on my throne in my stead; verily, so will I do this day. Then Bath- 
sheba bowed with her face to the earth, and prostrated herself before 
the king, and said: Let my lord king David live forever. 

And king David said: Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the 
prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the 
king. And the king said unto them: Take with you the servants of 
your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and 
bring him down to Gihon. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the 
prophet anoint him there king over Israel; and blow ye with the horn, 
and say: Long live King Solomon. Then ye shall come up after him, 
and he shall come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my 
stead, and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. 
And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said: Amen; 
may Yahweh, the God of my lord the king, say so also. As Yahweh hath 
been with my lord the king, even so may He be with Solomon and make 
his throne greater than the throne of my lord, King David. 

So Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son 
of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down and 
caused Solomon to ride on King David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. 
And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the Tabernacle, and 
anointed Solomon. And they blew the ram’s horn; and all the people 
said: Long live King Solomon. And all the people came up after him, 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 143 


and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the 
earth rent with the sound of them. 

And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as 
they made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the 
horn, he said: Wherefore is this noise of the city in an uproar? While 
he yet spake, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came; 
and Adonijah said: Come in, for thou art a worthy man and bringest 
good tidings. And Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah: Verily, 
our lord King David hath made Solomon king. And the king hath sent 
with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the 
son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they have 
caused him to ride on the king’s mule. And Zadok the priest and Nathan 
the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon; and they are come up 
from thence rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the 
noise that ye have heard. And also Solomon sitteth on the throne of 
the kingdom. And moreover, the king’s servants came to bless our lord 
king David, saying: God make the name of Solomon better than 
thy name, and make his throne greater than thy throne; and the king 
bowed down upon his bed. And also thus said the king: Blessed be 
Yahweh, the God of Israel, who hath given one to sit on my throne 
this day, mine eyes even seeing it. 

And all the guests of Adonijah were afraid, and rose up and went, 
every man his way. And Adonijah feared because of Solomon; and he 
arose and went and caught hold on the horns of the altar. And it was 
told Solomon, saying: Behold, Adonijah hath laid hold on the horns of 
the altar, saying: Let King Solomon swear unto me first of all that he 
will not slay his servant with the sword. And Solomon said: If he 
shall show himself a worthy man, there shall not a hair of him fall 
to the earth; but if wickedness be found in him, he shall die. So king 
Solomon went, and they brought him down from the altar. And he 
came and prostrated himself before king Solomon; and Solomon said 
unto him: Go to thy house. 

Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged 
Solomon his son, saying: I go the way of all the earth; be thou strong 
therefore, and show thyself a man; and keep the charge of Yahweh thy 
God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes and His commandments 
and His ordinances and His testimonies, according to that which is 
written in the book of Moses; that thou mayest prosper in all that 
thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself; that Yahweh may 
establish His word which He spake concerning me, saying: If Thy chil- 
dren take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their 
heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee, said He, a man 
on the throne of Israel. Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son 
of Zeruiah did unto me, even what he did to the two captains of the 
hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner and unto Amasa the son 
of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put 
the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his 
shoes that were on his feet. Do therefore according to thy wisdom, 
and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace. But show 
kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of 
those who. eat at thy table; for so they drew nigh unto me when I fled 
from Absalom thy brother. And behold, there is with thee Shimei the 
son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous 
curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet 
me at the Jordan, and I sware unto him by Yahweh, saying: I will not 


144 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


put thee to death with the sword. Now therefore, hold him not guiit- 
less, for thou art a wise man; and thou wilt know what thou oughtest to 
do unto him, and thou shalt bring his hoar head down to the grave with 
blood. 

And David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of 
David. And the days that David reigned were forty years. Seven years 
he reigned in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jeru- 
salem. 


CHAPTER VI 


THE REIGN OF SOLOMON 
THE ACCESSION OF REHOBOAM AND THE DIVISION 
OF THE KINGDOM 


SECTION I.—Solomon establishes his rule by putting to death Adonijah 
and Joab. Makes alliance with Egypt, and marries Pharaoh’s 
daughter. Dreams that Yahweh endows him with great wisdom. 
Judges justly between two women. Appoints his Cabinet and house- 
hold officials. Contracts with Hiram, king of Tyre, for materials 
and workmen for building the Temple of Yahweh. Description of 
the Temple and its furnishings. Builds his own palace and that 
of the Egyptian princess. The installing of the ark in the Temple; 
the dedication of the Temple, and Solomon’s address to the people. 
Pie les Heol eclV,e0 se Va 7,0, 10,4108, 20, 22-25, 260,°32° vi, 1b-10, 
15-20, 22, 29, 31-38; vil, 13, 15-18, 20b-45, 47, 57; viii, 1, 3b, 4, 7-9a, 
10, 55-66.) 

Materials: Besides popular traditions, much written matter; “Acts 
of Solomon”, “Sayings of the Seers”, and other works now lost; also, 
undoubtedly, State and Temple Records. 


And Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father. Then Adonijah 
the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. And she 
said: Comest thou peaceably? and he said: Peaceably. He said, more- 
over: I have somewhat to say unto thee. And she said: Say on. And 
he said: Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel 
set their faces on me that I should reign; howbeit, the kingdom is turned 
about, and is become my brother’s, for it was his from Yahweh. And 
now, I ask one petition of thee; deny me not. And she said unto him: 
Say on. And he said: Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king,—for 
he will not say thee nay,—that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to 
wife. And Bathsheha said: Well, I will speak for thee unto the king. 

Bathsheba, therefore, went unto King Solomon, to speak unto him 
for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed down before 
her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the 
king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand. Then she said: I ask 
one small petition of thee; deny me not. And the king said unto her: 
Ask on, my mother; for I will not deny thee. And she said: Let 
Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife. And 
king Solomon answered and said unto his mother: And why dost thou 
ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom 
also, for he is my elder brother; even for him and for Abiathar the 
priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah. Then king Solomon sware by 
Yahweh, saying: God do so unto me, and more also, if Adonijah hath 
not spoken this against his own life. Now therefore, as Yahweh liveth, 
who hath established me and set me on the throne of David my father, 


145 


146 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and who hath made me a house as He promised, surely Adonijah shall 
be put to death this day. And King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah 
the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him so that he died. 

And unto Abiathar the priest said the king: Get thee to Anathoth 
unto thine own fields, for thou art deserving of death; but I will not at 
this time put thee to death, because thou didst bear the ark of Yahweh 
before David my father, and because thou wast afflicted in all wherein 
my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being 
priest unto Yahweh; that the word of Yahweh might be fulfilled which 
He spake concerning the house of Eli, at Shiloh. 

And the tidings came to Joab, for Joab had turned after Adonijah, 
though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the Tabernacle 
of Yahweh, and laid hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told 
king Solomon: Joab is fled unto the tabernacle of Yahweh, and behold, 
he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, say- . 
ing: Go, fall upon him. And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of Yahweh, 
- and said unto him: Thus saith the king: Come forth. And he said: Nay, 
but I will die here. And Benaiah brought back word unto the king, say- 
ing: Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. And the king said unto 
him: Do as he hath said, and fall upon him and bury him; that thou 
mayest take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me 
and from my father’s house. And Yahweh will return his blood upon 
his own head, because he fell upon two men more righteous and better 
than he, and slew them with the sword, and my father David knew it 
not, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa 
the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah. So shall their blood 
return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever; 
but unto David and unto his seed and unto his house, and unto his 
throne, shall there be peace for ever from Yahweh. Then Benaiah the 
son of Jehoiada went up and fell upon him, and slew him; and he was 
buried in his own house in the wilderness. And the king put Benaiah 
the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host; and Zadok the priest did 
the king put in the room of Abiathar. 

And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him: Build 
thee a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there; and go not thence any 
whither. For on the day thou goest out, and dost pass over the brook 
Kidron, know thou for certain that thou shalt surely die; thy blood 
shall be upon thine own head. And Shimei said unto the king: The 
saying is good; as the king my lord hath said, so will thy servant do, 
and Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days. 

And it came to pass, at the end of three years, that two of the 
servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish, son of Maachah, king of Gath. 
And Shimei arose and saddled his ass and went to Achish to seek his 
servants; and Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath. And 
it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and 
was come back. And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto 
him: Did I not make thee to swear by Yahweh, and forewarn thee, 
saying: Know for certain, that on the day thou goest out and walkest 
abroad any whither, thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me: 
The saying is good; I have heard it. Why then hast thou not kept the 
oath of Yahweh, and the commandment that I charged thee with? The 
king said moreover to Shimei: Thou knowest all the wickedness which 
thou didst to David my father; therefore Yahweh shall return thy wick- 
edness upon thine own head. But king Solomon shall be blessed, and 
the throne of David shall be established before Yahweh for ever. So the 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 147 


king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and fell 
upon him, so that he died. 

So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. And 
Solomon became allied to the Pharaoh of Egypt by marriage, and took 
Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he 
had made an end of building his own house, and the House of Yahweh, 
and the wall of Jerusalem round about. Only the people sacrificed in 
the high places, because there was no house built for the name of Yah- 
weh until those days. And Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the 
statutes of David his father; only he sacrificed and burnt incense in 
high places. 

And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the 
great high place; a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon 
that altar. In Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by 
night; and God said: Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said: 
Thou hast shown unto Thy servant David my father great kindness. And 
now, O my God, Yahweh, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of 
David my father; and I am but a child; I know not how to go out or 
to come in. Give Thy servant, therefore, an understanding heart to 
judge Thy people, that I may choose aright between good and evil; for 
who is able to judge this Thy great people? And the speech pleased 
Yahweh, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him: 
Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long 
life, neither hast asked riches for thyself nor hast asked the life of 
thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern 
justice; behold, I have done according to thy word. Lo, I have given 
thee a wise and understanding heart. And I have also given thee that 
which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor. 

And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And he returned 
to Jerusalem. 

Then came there unto the king two women that were harlots, and 
stood before him. And the one woman said: O my lord, I and this 
woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in 
the house. And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered, that 
this woman was delivered also; and we were together; there was no 
stranger with us in the house save we two in the house. And this 
woman’s child died in the night, because she overlay it. And she arose 
at midnight and took my son from beside me while thy handmaid 
slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 
And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was 
dead; but when I had looked well at it in the morning, behold, it was 
not my son whom [I did bear. And the other woman said: Nay, but 
the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. Thus they spake before 
the king. 

Then said the king: The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and 
thy son is the dead; and the other saith: Nay, but thy son is the dead, 
and my son is the living. And the king said: Fetch me a sword. And 
they brought a sword before the king. And the king said: Divide the 
living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then 
spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her 
heart yearned upon her son, and she said: O my lord, give her the 
living child, and in no wise slay it: But the other said: It shall be 
neither thine nor mine; divide it. Then the king answered and said: 
Give her the living child and in no wise slay it; she is the mother 
thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had 


148 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God 
was in him to do justice. 

So king Solomon was king over all Israel. And these were the 
princes that he had. Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest; Elihoreph 
and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, 
the recorder; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and 
Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Azariah the son of Nathan was 
over the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister and 
the king’s friend; and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram 
the son of Abda, was over the levy. 

And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided vic- 
tuals for the king and his household; each man had to make provision 
for a month in the year, and one officer was over all the officers in 
the land. And these officers provided victual for king Solomon, and 
for all that came unto king Solomon’s table, each man in his month; 
they let nothing be lacking. Barley also and straw for the horses and 
swift steeds brought they into the place where it should be, every man 
according to his charge. 

Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had 
heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father; for 
Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying: 
I purpose to build a house to the name of Yahweh my God. Now there- 
fore, command thou that they hew me cedar-trees out of Lebanon; and 
my servants shall be with thy servants; and I will give thee hire for 
thy servants according to all that thou shalt say; for thou knowest 
that there are not among us any that hath skill to hew timber like unto 
the Zidonians. And Hiram sent unto Solomon, saying: I have heard 
that which thou hast sent unto me; I will do all thy desire concerning 
timber of cedar, and concerning timber of cypress. My servants shall 
bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into 
rafts to go by sea unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will 
cause them to be broken up there, and thou shalt receive them. And 
thou shalt accomplish my desire in giving food for my household. So 
Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of cypress according 
to all his desire; and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of 
wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of beaten oil; 
thus gave Solomon to Hiram, year by year. And there was peace be- 
tween Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together. 

And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was 
thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a 
month by course; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at 
home; and Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had threescore 
and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand that were 
hewers in the mountains; besides Solomon’s chief officers that were 
over the work,—three thousand and three hundred who bare rule over 
the people that wrought in the work. And the king commanded, and 
they quarried great stones to lay the foundations of the house with 
cut stone. And Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites 
did fashion them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the 
house. 

Now it came to pass in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over 
Israel, he began to build the house of Yahweh; and the length thereof 
was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the 
height thereof thirty cubits. And the porch before the temple of the 
house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth 
of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 149 


And for the house he made windows broad within, and narrow with- 
out. And against the wall of the house, he built a side-structure round 
about, against the walls both of the house and of the Sanctuary; and 
he made side-chambers round about. The nethermost story of the side- 
structure was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, 
and the third was seven cubits broad; for on the outside he made abut- 
ments round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls 
of the house. The door for the lowest row of chambers was in the 
right side of the house; and one went up by winding stairs into the 
middle row, and out of the middle into the third. So he built the 
house and finished it; and he covered in the house with planks of 
cedar over beams. And he built the stories of chambers, each five 
cubits high, against the walls of the house, and they rested on the 
house with timber of cedar. 

And Solomon built the walls of the house within with boards of 
cedar; from the floor of the house to the joists of the ceiling, he covered 
them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house 
with boards of cypress. And he built twenty cubits on the hinder part 
of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the joists; he built 
them within for a Sanctuary; and the temple before it was forty cubits 
long. And the cedar on the house within was carved with knops and 
open flowers; all was cedar; there was no stone seen. And he prepared 
the Sanctuary in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark 
of Yahweh, twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in breadth, and 
twenty cubits in the height thereof. And before it he set an altar 
which he covered with cedar; and the whole altar which belonged to 
the Sanctuary he overlaid with gold. 

And for the Sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive-wood, each 
ten cubits high. And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and 
five cubits the other wing of the cherub; from the uttermost part of 
the one wing to the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits. And 
the other cherub was ten cubits; both the cherubim were of one measure 
and one form. And he set the cherubim within the Sanctuary; and the 
wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one 
touched one wall and the wing of the other touched the other wall; and 
their [other] wings touched in the midst of the house. And he overlaid 
the cherubim with gold. 

And he carved all the walls of the house round about with figures 
of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers, both in the inner and 
outer rooms. And for the entrance of the Sanctuary he made doors 
of olive-wood, the door-posts within the frame having five hinges. 
And on the two doors of olive-wood he carved carvings of cherubim 
and palm-trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold. So 
also he made for the entrance of the temple door-posts of olive-wood 
within a frame four-square, and two doors of cypress-wood; the two 
leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other 
door were folding. And he carved thereon cherubim and palm-trees 
and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted upon the 
graven work. 

In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of Yahweh 
laid, in the month Ziv; and in the eleventh year in the month Bul was 
the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to 
all the plan of it. So was he seven years in finishing it. 

Then Solomon sent and fetched Hiram of Tyre, a worker in brass; 
and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill to work all 
sorts of work in brass. And he came to King Solomon, and wrought 


150 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


all his works. Thus he fashioned the two pillars of brass, each eighteen 
cubits high; and a line of twelve cubits did compass one about, and 
so the other pillar. And he made two capitals of molten brass to set 
upon the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five 
cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. He also 
made nets of checker-work and wreaths of chain-work for the capitals 
which were upon the top of the pillars, seven for the one capital and 
seven for the other. And he made the pomegranates; and there were 
two rows round about upon the one network to cover the capital that 
was above the pomegranates. And the pomegranates were two hundred 
in rows round about under the capital, close above the swelling of the 
pillar. And so he did also for the other pillar. And he set up the 
pillars at the porch of the temple; and he set up the right pillar, and 
called the name thereof Jakin; and he set up the left pillar, and called 
the name thereof, Boaz. And upon the top of the pillars was lily-work. 
So was the work of the pillars finished. 

And he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, 
round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits; and a line 
of thirty cubits did compass it round about. And under the brim of it 
round about there were knops which did encompass it for ten cubits, 
compassing the sea round about; the knops were in two rows, cast 
when it was cast. It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward 
the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward 
the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set upon 
them above, and all their hinder parts were turned inward. And it 
was a handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like the 
brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held two thousand baths. 

And he made the ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length 
of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits | 
the height of it. And the work of the bases was on this manner; they 
had borders, and the borders were between the stays; and on the 
borders that were between the stays were lions, oxen and cherubim; 
and upon the stays it was in like manner above; and beneath the lions 
and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. And every base had four 
brazen wheels, and axles of brass; and the four feet thereof had under- 
setters; beneath the laver were the undersetters molten, with wreaths 
at the side of each. And the mouth of it within the crown and above, 
was a cubit high; and the mouth thereof was round like the work of 
a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also upon the mouth of it were 
gravings; and their borders were foursquare, not round. And the 
four wheels were underneath the borders, and the axle-trees of the 
wheels were in the base; and the height of a wheel was a cubit and 
half a cubit. And the work of the wheel was like the work of a 
chariot-wheel; their axle-trees, and their felloes, and their spokes, and 
their hubs were all molten. And there were four undersetters at the 
four corners of each base; the undersetters thereof were of one piece 
with the base itself. And in the top of the base was a round compass 
of half a cubit high; and on the top of the base, the stays thereof 
and the borders thereof were of one piece therewith. And on the 
plates of the stays thereof and on the borders thereof, he graved 
cherubim and palm-trees, and lions according to the space of each, 
with wreaths round about. After this manner he made the ten bases; 
all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form. And he made 
ten lavers of brass; one laver contained forty baths; and every laver 
was four cubits, and upon every one of the ten bases, one laver. And 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 151 


he set the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the 
left side of the house; and he set the sea on the right side of the 
house, eastward towards the south. And Hiram made the pots and the 
shovels and the basins, 

So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he wrought for 
king Solomon in the house of Yahweh; the two pillars and the two 
bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; and the two 
networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top 
of the pillars; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two net- 
works, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two 
bowls of the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars; and the 
ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases; and the one sea, and the 
twelve oxen under the sea; and the pots, and the shovels, and the basins; 
even all these vessels which Hiram made for king Solomon were of bur- 
nished brass. In the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the 
clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. And Solomon left all the 
vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many; the weight of 
the brass could not be found out. 

But Solomon made all the vessels in the House of Yahweh of gold: 
the golden altar, and the table where the show-bread was; and the 
candlesticks, five on the right side and five on the left before the 
Sanctuary; the flowers and the lamps and the tongs; and the cups and 
the snuffers and the basins and the pans and the fire-pans, of pure 
gold; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most 
holy place, and for the doors of the House, that is, of the Temple. 

Thus all the work that king Solomon wrought for the House of 
Yahweh was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which David 
his father had dedicated, the silver and the gold, and the vessels, and 
put them in the treasuries of the House of Yahweh. 

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of 
the tribes, the princes of the father’s houses of the Children of Israel, 
unto king Solomon in Jerusalem to bring the ark of Yahweh out of the 
City of David at the feast in the month Ethanim. And the priests took 
up the ark of Yahweh, and brought in the ark of Yahweh unto its 
place, into the Sanctuary of the house, even under the wings of the 
cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place 
of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the staves thereof 
above. And the staves were so long, that the ends of the staves were 
seen from the holy place, even in front of the Sanctuary; but they could 
not be seen without, and there they are unto this day. There was noth- 
ing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at 
Horeb. And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the 
holy place, that the cloud filled the House of Yahweh, so that the 
priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the 
glory of Yahweh filled the House of Yahweh. Then spake Solomon: 


Yahweh hath said that He would dwell in the thick darkness. 
I have surely built Thee a house of habitation, 
A place for Thee to dwell in for ever. 


Then the king turned about and blessed all the congregation of 
Israel; and all the congregation of Israel stood. And he said: Blessed 
be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spake with His mouth unto David 
my father, and hath with His hand fulfilled it, saying: Since the day 
that I brought forth My people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out 
of all the tribes of Israel to build a house that My name might be 


152 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


there; but I chose David to be over My people Israel. And Yahweh 
said unto David my father: Thy son that shall come forth out of thy 
loins, he shall build the house for My name. And Yahweh hath estab- 
lished His word that He spake; for I am risen up in the room of David 
my father and sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and 
have built the House for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel. And 
there I have set a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the 
Lord, which He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of 
the land of Egypt. 

And Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh, and blessed all the 
congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying: Blessed be Yahweh 
that hath given rest unto His people Israel, according to all that He 
promised; there hath not failed one word of all His good promise, 
which He promised by the hand of His servant Moses. May Yahweh, 
our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; let Him not leave 
us nor forsake us. Let your heart, therefore, be whole with Yahweh 
your God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as 
at this day. 

And the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before Yahweh. 
And Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace-offerings which he offered 
unto Yahweh, two and twenty thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty 
thousand sheep. Thus did the king and all the Children of Israel 
dedicate the House of Yahweh. The same.day did the king hallow the 
middle of the court that was before the House of Yahweh; for there 
he offered the burnt-offering and the meal-offering, and the fat of the 
peace-offerings; because the brazen altar that was before Yahweh was 
too little to receive the burnt-offering and the meal-offering and the 
fat of the peace-offerings. 

So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him—a 
great congregation from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of 
Egypt,—before Yahweh, our God, seven whole days; and on the eighth 
day he sent the people away. And they blessed the king, and went 
unto their tents joyful and glad of heart, for all the goodness that 
Yahweh had shown unto David His servant and to Israel His people. 


SECTION II.—Solomon builds his own palace, the House of the Forest 
of Lebanon, and that of his Egyptian queen. Settles his accounts 
with Hiram, king of Tyre. Rebuilds Gezer and other cities. Estab- 
lishes a fleet of trading-vessels. Trades on the Red Sea, with Egypt, 
and even Tarshish (Spain). The visit of the queen of Sheba. 
His luxurious living, and breach of the laws of the Covenant. 
Enemies arise in Edom and Damascus. Jeroboam, son of Nebat, 
whom Solomon had made head of the levy from the northern tribes 
for his building operations, arouses the king’s jealousy and flees 
into Egypt. Rehoboam succeeds his father Solomon, and the north- 
ern tribes appeal for relief from their heavy taxes. Jeroboam, 
recalled from Egypt, heads their embassy. Rehoboam scornfully 
refuses, and the tribes revolt, making Jeroboam their king. Reho- 
boam summons his army, but Yahweh forbids a war. (41 Ki. vii, 
4-42" ix 44b-19, 23, 26-29: x, 44, 42544-2240 71-10, 13:0 xr 4-0 ae, 
16-34, 40-43; xii, 1-19, 21-24.) 

Materials: As for Section I. 


Now Solomon was building his own house thirteen years before 
he had finished all his house, for he built the House of the Forest of 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 153 


Lebanon. The length thereof was a hundred cubits, and the breadth 
thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits upon four rows 
of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. And it was covered 
with cedar above upon the side-chambers, that lay on forty and five 
pillars, fifteen in a row. And there were beams in three rows, and 
light was over against light in three ranks. And he made the Hall 
of Pillars; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof 
thirty cubits; and before it a porch with pillars, and a threshold before 
them. Then he made a porch for the throne where he should judge, 
even the Porch of Judgment; and it was covered with cedar from one 
side of the floor to the other. His house where he dwelt, in another 
court, was of like work. Solomon made also for Pharaoh’s daughter, 
whom he had taken to wife, a house like unto this. And Pharaoh’s 
daughter came up out of the City of David unto her house which 
Solomon had built for her. Then he built Millo. 

All these were of costly stones, according to the measure of hewn 
stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation 
unto the coping, and so on the outside to the great court. And the 
foundation was of costly stones, even of great stones; stones of ten 
cubits and stones of eight cubits. And above were costly stones, after 
the measure of hewn stones, and cedar-wood. And the great court 
round about had three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams, 
like as the inner court of the House of Yahweh, and the court of the 
porch of the House. 

Then Solomon gave Hiram [king of Tyre] twenty cities in the land 
of Galilee. And Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon 
had given him, and they pleased him not. And he said: What cities 
are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And they are called 
the land of Cabul unto this day. And Hiram gave unto the king six- 
score talents of gold. 

Now this is the account of the levy which king Solomon raised to 
build the House of Yahweh, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall 
of Jerusalem, and Hazor and Megiddo, and Gezer. (Now Pharaoh king 
of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burnt it with fire, and 
slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it as a portion 
unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife.) And Solomon rebuilt Gezer and 
Bethhoron the nether, and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in 
the land; and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and cities for his 
chariots and for his horsemen, and what Solomon desired to build in 
Jerusalem and in Lebanon, and in all his dominion. And the chief 
officers that were over Solomon’s work were five hundred and fifty, 
who bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. 

And King Solomon made a fleet of trading vessels in Ezion-geber, 
which is beside Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 
And Hiram sent in them of his servants, shipmen that had knowledge 
of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, 
and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and 
brought it to King Solomon. And Hiram’s navy that brought in gold 
from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of sandal-wood and 
precious stones. And the king made of the sandalwood pillars for the 
king’s house, harps also and psalteries; there came no such sandal: 
wood, nor was seen, unto this day. 

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six 
hundred threescore and six talents of gold, besides that which came of 
the merchants and of the traffic of the traders, and of all the kings of 


154 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


the mingled people and of the governors of the country. And King 
Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold; six hundred shekels 
of gold went to one target. And he made three hundred shields of 
beaten gold; three pounds of gold went to one shield; and the king put 
them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. 

Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with 
the finest gold. There were six steps to the throne, and the top of the 
throne was round behind; and there were arms on either side on the 
place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms. And twelve 
lions stood there on the one side and on the other on the six steps; 
there was not the like made in any kingdom. And all King Solomon’s 
drinking-cups were made of gold, and all the vessels of the House of 
the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver; it was 
nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the king had at sea 
a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hirom; once every three years 
came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes 
and peacocks. And they brought every man his present, vessels of 
silver and vessels of gold, and raiment and armor and spices, horses 
and mules,—a rate year by year. And Solomon gathered together 
chariots and horsemen; and he had a thousand and four hundred 
chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen that he bestowed in the chariot 
cities, and with the king in Jerusalem. Now the horses which Solomon 
had were brought out of Egypt; also out of Keveh, the king’s merchants 
buying them of the men of Keveh at a price. And a chariot came up 
and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse 
for a hundred and fifty; and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and 
for the kings of Aram did they bring them out by their means. 

Now when the queen of Sheba’ heard of the fame of Solomon, because 
of the name of Yahweh, she came to prove him with hard questions. 
And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that 
bare spices and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she 
was come to Solomon, she spake to him of all that was in her heart. 
And Solomon answered all her questions; there was not anything hid 
from the king, which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba 
had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and 
the food of his table, and the seating of his servants; and the attendance 
of his ministers, and their apparel; and his cup-bearers, and his burnt- 
offerings which he offered in the house of Yahweh; there was no more 
spirit in her. And she said to the king: It was a true report that I 
heard in mine own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I 
believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen it; and 
behold, the half was not told me; thou hast wisdom and prosperity 
exceeding the fame that I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these 
thy servants that stand continually before thee, and that hear thy 
wisdom. Blessed be thy God Yahweh, who delighted in thee to set 
thee on the throne of Israel. Because Yahweh loved Israel for ever, 
therefore made he thee king, to do justice and righteousness. 

And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and 
of spices very great store, and precious stones. There came no more 
such abundance of spices as those which the queen of Sheba brought 
to King Solomon. And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all 
her desire; whatsoever she asked, besides that which Solomon gave 

1The story of the Queen of Sheba, though added late, seems to have come from the 
same source as the rest of J’s account; it is only another detail, however, of the dizzy 


height of fame and glory attributed to Solomon, which brought about the fall of his king- 
dom, It is a tradition greatly cherished by the Arabs, 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 155 


her of his royal bounty. So she turned, and went to her own land, 
she and her servants. 

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women besides the daughter 
of Pharaoh, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 
of the nations concerning which Yahweh said unto the Children of 
Israel: Ye shall not go among them, neither shall they come among 
you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon 
did cleave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, prin- 
cesses, and three hundred concubines. For it came to pass, when Solo- 
mon was old, that his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as 
was the heart of David his father. For Solomon did build a high place 
for Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, in the mount that is 
before Jerusalem, and for Melech, the abomination of the children of 
Ammon. And so did he for all his foreign wives, who offered and 
sacrificed unto their gods. 

And Yahweh was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned 
away from Yahweh the God of Israel. And Yahweh raised up an ad- 
versary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the king’s seed 
in Edom. For it came to pass, when David was in Edom, and Joab, 
the captain of the host, had gone up to bury the slain, and had smitten 
every male in Edom (for Joab and all Israel remained there six months 
until he had cut off every male in Edom), that Hadad fled, he and certain 
Edomites of his father’s servants with him, to go into Egypt, Hadad 
being yet but a little child. And they arose out of Midian and came 
to Paran; and they took men with them out of Paran and came to Egypt, 
unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who gave him a house and appointed him 
victuals, and gave him land. And Hadad found great favor in the sight 
of Pharaoh, so that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, 
the sister of Tahpahnes, the queen. And the sister of Tahpahnes bare 
him Genubath, his son, whom Tahpahnes weaned in Pharaoh’s house; 
and Genubath was in Pharaoh’s house among the sons of Pharaoh. 
But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers 
and that Joab, the captain of the host, was dead, Hadad said unto 
Pharaoh: Let me depart that I may go into mine own country. Then 
Pharaoh said unto him: But what hast thou lacked with me that thou 
makest to go to thine own country? And he answered: Nothing; how- 
beit, let me depart in any wise.” 

And God raised up another adversary unto him, Rezon, the son of 
Eliada, who had fled from his lord, Hadadezer, King of Zobah. And 
he gathered men unto him, and became captain over a troop, when 
David slew them [of Zobah]; and they went to Damascus, and dwelt 
therein; and he reigned in Damascus. And he was an adversary to 
Israel all the days of Solomon, besides the mischief that Hadad did; 
and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Aram. 

And Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zeredah, whose 
mother’s name was Zeruiah, a widow, he also lifted up his hand against 
the king. And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the 
king. Solomon built Millo and repaired the breach in the wall of the 
city of David, his father. And the man Jeroboam was a man of great 
vigor; and Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, and he 
gave him charge over all the levy of the house of Joseph. And it came 
to pass at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the 
prophet Ahijah of Shiloh found him in the way. Now Ahijah had clad 
himself in a new garment; and they two were alone in the field. And 


1 The sequel is hinted at in the next paragraph, and therefore put in Italics there. 


156 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him, and rent it into 
twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam: Take thee ten pieces; for 
thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel. Behold, I will rend the kingdom 
out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee. But he 
shall have one tribe, for My servant David’s sake, and for the sake of 
Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. 

Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. Then Jeroboam arose 
and fled to Egypt, unto Shishak, King of Egypt, and was in Egypt until 
the death of Solomon. And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was 
buried in the city of David his father; and Rehoboam, his son, reigned 
in his stead. 


Now Rehoboam went to Shechem; for all Israel were come to Shechem 
to make him king. And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of 
Nebat heard it, that Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came 
and spake unto Rehoboam, saying: Thy father made our yoke grievous; 
now, therefore, make thou the grievous service of thy father and the 
heavy yoke which he put upon us lighter, and we will serve thee. And 
he said unto them: Depart for yet three days, then come again unto 
me. And the people departed. And King Rehoboam took counsel with 
the old men that had stood before his father Solomon while he yet 
lived, saying: What counsel give ye me to return answer to this people? 
And they spake unto him and said: If thou answer them and speak 
good words unto them, then will they be thy servants for ever. But 
he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and 
took counsel with the young men that had grown up with him that 
stood before him. And he said unto them: What counsel give ye, that 
we may return answer to this people who have spoken to us, saying: 
Make the yoke that thy father did put upon us lighter. And the young 
men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying: Thus shalt 
thou say unto this people that spake unto thee, saying: Thy father made 
our yoke heavy, but do thou make it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou 
say unto them: My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. And 
now, whereas my father did burden you with a heavy yoke, I will add 
to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise 
you with scorpions. 

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, 
as the king had bidden, saying: Come to me again the third day. And 
the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the counsel of the old 
men which they had given him; and spake to them after the counsel 
of the young men, saying: My father made your yoke heavy, but I will 
add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chas- 
tise you with scorpions. So the king hearkened not unto the people; for 
the cause was from Yahweh, that He might establish His word which 
Yahweh had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son 
of Nebat. 

And when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the 
people answered the king, saying: 


What share have we in David? 
Or rights in the son of Jesse? 

To your tents, O Israel! 
Now look to thy own house, David! 


So Israel departed to their tents. 
Then king Rohoboam sent Adoram, who was over the levy; and all 
Israel stoned him with stones that he died. And king Rehoboam made 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 157 


speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel re- 
belled against the house of David unto this day; there was none that 
followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only. 

And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the 
house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and fourscore 
thousand chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel to bring 
the kingdom back to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. But the word of 
God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying: Speak unto Rehoboam 
the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and 
of Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying: Thus saith Yahweh: 
Ye shall not fight against your brethren the children of Israel; return 
every man to his house, for this thing is of Me. So they hearkened unto 
the word of Yahweh, and returned and went their way, according to 
the word of Yahweh. 


CHAPTER VII 


THE APOSTASY OF REHOBOAM AND HIS SON ABIJAH AND 
THE REIGNS OF ASA AND JEHOSHAPHAT, 
KINGS OF JUDAH 


SECTION I.—The evil-doings of Rehoboam and his people. The invasion 
of the Pharaoh Shishak. Accession of Abijah. His character. The 
long and righteous rule of Asa. His war with Baasha, king of 
Israel. His alliance with Ben-Hadad, king of Aram. The successful 
conclusion of the war. Rebuilds the cities of Geba and Mizpah. 
The struggle for the throne in apostate Israel; the establishing of 
the House of Omri. Omri builds the fortress-city, Samaria. Ahab 
succeeds him as king of Israel. Jehoshaphat succeeds his father 
Asa in Judah. (1 Ki. xiv, 21b-28, 30-31; xv, 2-5, 7b, 8, 10-15, 33, 18-22; 
XVI; 15-19,) 21-26, 28-342" xv, 245 Xx1i, 741-453) 

Materials: Chiefly, State and Temple Records immediately preceding 
ui es day, and tidings of contemporary events both in Judah 
and Israel. 


Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign; 
and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name 
was Naamah, the Ammonitess. And Judah did that which was evil in 
the sight of Yahweh; and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins 
that they committed above all that their fathers had done. For they also 
built high places and pillars, and Asherim on every high hill, and 
under every leafy tree. And there were also sodomites in the land; and 
they did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh 
drove out from before the Children of Israel. 

And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak 
king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. And he took away the treas- 
ures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king’s house; 
he even took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. And 
king Rehoboam made in their stead shields of brass and committed 
them to the hands of the captains of the guard who kept the door of 
the king’s house. And it was so that, as oft as the king went into the 
house of Yahweh, the guard bare them, and brought them back into 
the guard-chamber. Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jero- 
boam continually. 

And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers 
in the city of David; and Abijah his son reigned in his stead. Three 
years he reigned in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maacah, the 
daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins of his father, which 
he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh, 
his God, like the heart of David his father. Nevertheless for David's 
sake did Yahweh, his God, give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his 
son after him and to establish Jerusalem, because David had done what 
was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and turned not aside from anything 


158 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 159 


that He commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter 
of Uriah the Hittite. And there was war also between Abijah and 
Jeroboam, all the days of his life. 

And Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city 
of David; and Asa his son reigned in his stead. Forty and one years 
reigned he in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maacah. And Asa 
did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, as did David his father. 
And he put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the 
idols that his father had made. And also Maacah, his mother, he re- 
moved from being queen, because she had made an abominable symbol 
for an Asherah. And Asa cut down her image, and burnt it at the 
brook Kidron. But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless 
the heart of Asa was perfect before Yahweh all his days. And he brought 
into the house of Yahweh the things that his father had hallowed, and 
the things that himself had hallowed, silver and gold and vessels. 

In the third year of Asa, king of Judah, began Baasha the son of 
Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned twenty and 
four years. And there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of 
Israel, all their days. And Baasha,. king of Israel, went up against 
Judah and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any one to go out or 
come in to Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa took all the treasures that 
were left in the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king’s house, 
and delivered them into the hands of his servants; and king Asa sent 
them to Ben-Hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of 
Aram, that dwelt at Damascus, saying: There is a league between thee 
and me, between thy father and my father; behold, I have sent thee a 
present of silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha, king of 
Israel, that he may depart from me. And Ben-Hadad hearkened unto 
king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of 
Israel, and smote Ijon and Dan and Abel-ben-maacah, and all Chinneroth 
and all the land of Naphtali. And it came to pass, when Baasha heard 
thereof, that he left off building Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah. Then 
king Asa made a proclamation unto all Judah; none was exempted; and 
they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timber thereof where- 
with Baasha had builded; and king Asa rebuilt therewith Geba of Ben- 
jamin and Mizpah. | 

In the twenty and seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, did Zimri 
reign seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were encamped against 
Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. And the people that were 
encamped heard say: Zimri hath conspired and hath smitten the 
king; wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king 
over Israel that day in the camp. And Omri went up from Gibbethon, 
and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. And it came to pass, 
when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the castle 
of the king’s house, and burnt the king’s house over him with fire, 
and died. 

Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the 
people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him a king; and 
half followed Omri. But the people that followed Omri prevailed 
against the people that followed Tibni the son of Ginath; so Tibni died, 
and Omri reigned. 

In the thirty and first year of Asa, king of Judah, began Omri to 
reign over Israel, and reigned twelve years; six years he reigned in 
Tirzah. And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of 
silver; and he built on the hill, and he called the name of the city which 


160 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


he built Samariah after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill. And 
Omri did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and dealt wickedly 
above all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam 
the son of Nebat, and in his sins wherewith he made Israel to sin, to 
provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, with their vanities. 

And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, began Ahab 
the son of Omri to reign over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned 
over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. And Ahab the son of 
Omri did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh above all that 
were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing 
for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took 
to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidomians, and went 
and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for 
Baal in the house of Baal which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab 
made the Asherah; and Ahab did yet more to provoke Yahweh, the God 
of Israel, than all the kings of Israel that were before him. 

In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho. With Abiram his 
first-born he laid the foundations thereof, and with his youngest son 
Segub he set up the gates thereof; according to the word of Yahweh, 
which He spake by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun (Josh. vi, 26). 

And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in 
the city of David his father; and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his 
stead. 

And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the 
fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was thirty and five 
years old when he began to reign; and his mother’s name was Azubah, 
the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in all the way of Asa his 
father; he turned not aside from it, doing always that which was right 
in the sight of Yahweh. Howbeit the high places were not taken away; 
the people sacrificed and offered in the high places. And Jehoshaphat 
made peace with the king of Israel. 


SECTION II.—Ben-Hadad of Aram continues the war against Israel. 
Through the advice of a prophet of Yahweh, Ahab defeats him 
twice. For his league with the king of Aram, Ahab is warned of 
his death. The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, joins Ahab in an attack 
upon Ramoth-Gilead. Ahab is killed. His son Ahaziah succeeds 
him. Tries to join Jehoshaphat in trading with Ophir. Jehosha- 
phat refuses. (4 Ki. xx, 1-43; xxii, 1-38, 40.) 

Materials: As for preceding section. 


Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, gathered all his host together; and 
there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots; 
and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it. And he 
sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said unto 
them: Thus saith Ben-Hadad: Thy silver and thy gold are mine; 
thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest are mine. And 
the king of Israel answered and said: It is according to thy saying, my 
lord O king; I am thine and all that I have. And the messengers came 
again, and said: Thus speaketh Ben-Hadad, saying: I sent unto thee, 
indeed, saying: Thou shalt deliver me thy silver and thy gold, thy 
wives and thy children; but I will send my servants unto thee to-morrow 


about this time, and they shall search thy house and the houses of thy ~ 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 164 


servants; and it shall be, that whatever is pleasant in thine eyes, they 
shall put it in their hand, and take it away. 

Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said: 
Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief; for he sent 
unto me for my wives and for my children, and for my silver and my 
gold; and I denied him not. And all the elders and all the people said 
unto him: Hearken not thou, neither consent. Wherefore he said unto 
the messengers of Ben-Hadad: Tell thy master the king: All that 
thou didst send for to thy servant at the first I will do; but this thing 
I may not do. And Ben-Hadad sent unto him, and said: The gods do 
so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls 
for all the people that follow me. And the king of Israel answered and 
said: Tell him: Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast himself 
as he that putteth it off. And it came to pass, when he heard this mes- 
sage as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the booths, that he said 
unto his servants: Set yourselves in array. And they set themselves 
in array against the city. 

And behold, a prophet came near unto the king of Israel, and said: 
Thus saith Yahweh: Hast thou seen this great multitude? Behold, I 
will deliver it into thy hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am 
Yahweh. And Ahab said: By whom? And he said: Thus saith Yah- 
weh: By the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said: 
Who shall begin the battle? And he answered: Thou. Then he num- 
bered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were 
two hundred and thirty-two; and after them he numbered all the people, 
even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand. 

And they went out at noon. But Ben-Hadad was drinking himself 
drunk in the booths, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that 
helped him. And the young men of the provinces went out first; and 
Ben-Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying: There are men come 
from Samaria. And he said: Whether they are come out for peace, 
take them alive; or whether they are come out for war, take them 
alive. And they slew every one his man; and the Arameans fled, and 
Israel pursued them; and Ben-Hadad the king of Aram escaped on a 
horse with horsemen. And the king of Israel went out and smote the 
horses and chariots, and slew the Aramwans with a great slaughter. 
And the prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said unto him: 
Go, strengthen thyself, and see and mark what thou doest; for at the 
return of the season the king of Aram will come up against thee. 

And the servants of the king of Aram said unto him: Their God 
is a God of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us 
fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than 
they. And do this thing: take the kings away, every man out of his 
place, and put captains in their room; and number thee an army, like 
the army thou hast lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot; and 
we will fight them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than 
they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so. 

And it came to pass at the return of the season, that Ben-Hadad 
mustered the Aramsans, and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. 
And the children of Israel were mustered and victualled, and went 
against them; and the children of Israel encamped before them like two 
little flocks of kids; but the Arameans filled the country. And a man of 
God came near and spake unto the king of Israel, and said: Thus saith 
Yahweh: Because the Aramezans have said: Yahweh is a God of the 
hills, but he is not a God of the valleys; therefore will I deliver all this 


162 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


great multitude into thy hand; and ye shall know that I am Yahweh. 
And they encamped one over against the other seven days. And so it 
was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of 
Israel slew of the Arameans a hundred thousand footmen in one day. 
But the rest fled to Aphek into the city; and the wall fell upon twenty 
and seven thousand men that were left. And Ben-Hadad fled, and came 
into the city, into an inner chamber. 

And his servants said unto him: Behold now, we have heard that 
the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings; let us, we pray thee, 
put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the 
king of Israel; peradventure he will save thy life. So they girded sack- 
cloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the 
king of Israel, and said: Thy servant Ben-Hadad saith: I pray thee, 
let me live. And he said: Is he yet alive? he is my brother. Now 
the men took it for a sign, and hastened to catch it; and they said: 
Thy brother Ben-Hadad. ‘Then he said: Go, bring him. Then Ben- 
Hadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into his 
chariot. And Ben-Hadad said unto him: The cities which my father 
took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets 
for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab: 
I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with 
him and let him go. 

And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor 
by the command of Yahweh:. Smite me, I pray thee. And the man 
refused to smite him. Then said he unto him: Because thou hast not 
hearkened to the voice of Yahweh, behold, as soon as thou art departed 
from me, a lion shall slay thee. (And, as soon as he was departed from 
him, a lion found him and slew him.) Then he found another man, 
and said: Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, smiting 


and wounding him. So the prophet departed, and waited for the king ~ 


by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes. 
And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king, and said: Thy 
servant went out into the midst of the battle; and behold, a man turned 
aside and brought a man unto me, and said: Keep this man; if by 
any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else 
thou shalt pay a talent of silver. And as thy servant was busy here and 
there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him: So shall 
thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. And he hastened and took the 
headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel discerned that he 
was one of the prophets. And he said unto him: Thus saith Yahweh: 
Because thou hast let go out of thine hand the man whom I had devoted 
to destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people 
for his people. And the king of Israel went to his house sullen and 
displeased, and came to Samaria. 

And three years passed without war between Aram and Israel. And 
it came to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, 
came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his 
servants: Know ye that Ramoth-Gilead is ours? and we are still, and 
take it not out of the hand of the king of Aram. And he said unto 
Jehoshaphat: Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-Gilead? And 
Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel: I am as thou art, my people as 
thy people, my horses as thy horses. 

And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel: Inquire, I pray 
thee, at the word of Yahweh to-day. Then the king of Israel gathered 
the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them: 


THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ISRAEL 163 


Shall I go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they 
said: Go up, for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king. 
But Jehoshaphat said: Is there not here besides a prophet of Yahweh, 
that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehosha- 
phat: There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, 
Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he doth not prophesy 
good concerning me but evil. And Jehoshaphat said: Let not the king 
say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said: Fetch 
quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah. Now the king of Israel and Jehosha- 
phat, the king of Judah, were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in 
their robes, in the open place before the entrance of the gate of Samaria; 
and all the prophets prophesying before them. And Zedekiah the son of 
Chenaanah made him horns of iron, and said: Thus saith Yahweh: 
With these shalt thou gore the Arameans until they be consumed. 
And all the prophets prophesied thus, saying: Go up to Ramoth- 
Gilead and prosper; for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the 
king. 

Now the messenger that went to call Micaiah spake to him, saying: 
Behold now, the words of the prophets declare with one mouth good unto 
the king; let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, 
and do thou speak good. And Micaiah said: As Yahweh liveth, what 
Yahweh saith unto me, that will I speak. And when he was come unto 
the king, the king said unto him: Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth- 
Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him: Go up, 
and prosper; and Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king. 
And the king said unto him: JHow oft shall I adjure thee that 
thou speak unto me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh? 
And he said: I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountain as sheep 
that have no shepherd; and Yahweh said: ‘These have no master; 
let them return every man to his home in peace. (And the king 
of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat: Did I not tell thee that he would 
not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?) And he continued: 
Therefore, hear thou the word of Yahweh. I saw Yahweh sitting 
on a throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His 
right hand and on His left. And Yahweh said: Who shall entice Ahab, 
(hat he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this 
mmanner, and another on that manner. And there came forth a spirit 
and stood before Yahweh, and said: I will entice him. And Yahweh 
said unto him: Wherewith? And he said: I will go forth, and will 
be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said: Thou 
shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also. Go forth and do so. Now, 
therefore, behold, Yahweh hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all 
these thy prophets; and Yahweh hath spoken evil concerning thee. 

Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and smote Micaiah 
on the cheek, and said: Which way went the spirit of Yahweh from 
me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said: Behold, thou shalt see on 
that day, when thou goest into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And 
the king of Israel said: Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon 
the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son, and say: Thus 
saith the king: Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him on the 
bread of affliction and the water of affliction until I come in peace. And 
euspian said: If thou return at all in peace, Yahweh hath not spoken 

y me. 

So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up 

to Ramoth-Gilead. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat: I will 


164 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


disguise myself and go into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. And 
the king of Israel disguised himself. 

Now the king of Aram had commanded the thirty and two captains 
of his chariots, saying: Fight neither with small nor great, save only 
with the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when the captains of the 
chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said: Surely it is the king of 
Israel; and they turned aside to fight against him; but Jehoshaphat 
cried out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw 
that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing 
him. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king 
of Israel between the joints of his armor; wherefore he said unto the 
driver of his chariot: Turn thy hand and bear me out of the host; for 
I am sore wounded. And the battle increased that day; and the king was 
stayed up in his chariot against the Arameeans, and died at even; and 
the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot. And 
there went up a cry throughout the host, about the going down of the 
sun: Every man to his city, and every man to his country. 

So the king died and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the 
king in Samaria. And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; 
and the dogs licked up his blood; the harlots also washed themselves 
there; according to the word that Yahweh had spoken. So Ahab slept 
with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead. 

[But in Judah] Jehosophat put away out of the land the rem- 
nant of the sodomites that remained in the days of his father Asa. 
Now there was no king in Edom; a deputy was ruler. Jehoshaphat made 
ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold; but they went not, for the 
ships were broken in Ezion-geber. Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab 
unto Jehoshaphat: Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships; 
but he would not* . 


1 Here ends the great work of J,—abruptly, as if the pen had just fallen from his 
hand. The Ephraimite author E, having covered the same ground from Abraham to Ahab 
and given most vital traditions of the national heroes, rounds out the history of the 
usurpers in Israel during Asa’s reign in Judah from the Ephraimitic point of view; and, 
in his accounts of Elisha’s activities and the reign of Joash in Judah (Stories xvii and 
xvii), brings history to the reign of Jeroboam II in the middle of the eighth century B.c. 


THE 
GOLDEN AGE SeuereL ree Ns TEMPLE EN 2 
“FIRST PERIOD 


PROSE AND POETRY OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY, B.C. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 
POEMS OF AMOS OF TEKOA IN JUDAH 
POEMS OF HOSEA, THE EPHRAIMITE 
POEMS OF ISAIAH, THE COUNSELLOR OF HEZEKIAH 
POEMS OF MICAH, THE MORASTHITE 
SUPPLEMENT OF J’S HISTORY OF ISRAEL, BY JE 


WITH A LATE ADDITION BY P., 





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NOTABLE DEEDS OF THE PATRIARCHS 
AND HEROES OF ISRAEL 


By THE EPHRAIMITE AUTHOR E 


I 


OF ABRAHAM, THE PROGENITOR OF THE ISRAELITES 


The birth of Isaac. The abolition for his descendants of human sacri- 
fice. eae ins AVS XVI he LO TeX 4 4:7-50 XX1, 141 ba 6-4 
XXli, 


The word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying: Fear not, 
Abram; I am thy shield. Thy reward shall be exceeding great. And 
Abram said: O God Yahweh, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go 
childless, and he that shall-be the possessor of my goods is this Eliezer 
of Damascus? Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed, and one born 
in my house is mine heir. Then behold, the word of Yahweh came to 
him saying: This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth 
of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And He brought him forth 
abroad, and said: Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if 
thou be able to count them. And He said unto him: So shall thy seed 
be. And he believed in Yahweh, and it was counted to him for right- 
eousness. 

And He said unto him: [ am Yahweh, that brought thee out of 
‘Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land for an inheritance. And 
he said: O God Yahweh, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit 
it? And He answered him: Take Me a heifer of three years old, and 
a turtle-dove and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and 
divided them in the midst, and laid each piece, one against the other; 
but the birds he divided not. And when the fowls came down upon 
the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 

Now, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, 
and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And He said unto 
Abram: Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land 
that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four 
hundred years. And that nation also whom they shall serve will I 
judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance. But 
thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good 
old age. But in the fourth generation shall they come hither again; 
for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. 

And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, 
behold! a smoking furnace and a burning torch that passed between 
the pieces. 

In the same day, Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying: 
Unto thy seed will I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great 
river, the river Euphrates. 


167 


168 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bare him no children. And Sarai, Abram’s 
wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, after Abram had dwelt twelve 
years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband to be his 
wife. And Hagar bare Abram a son. And Abram called the name of 
his son whom Hagar bare, Ishmael. And Abraham? journeyed from 
thence and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. 
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife: She is my sister. And Abimelech, 
king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in 
a dream by night, and said unto him: Behold, thou art a dead man 
on account of the woman thou hast taken, for she is a man’s wife. 
And Abimelech had not come near her; and he said: Lord, wilt thou 
slay even a righteous person? Said he not unto me, She is my sister? 
and she, even she herself said: He is my brother. In the integrity 
of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God 
said unto him in a dream: Yea, I know that thou didst this in the 
integrity of thy heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against 
me; therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore, restore 
to the man his wife, for he is a prophet; and he shall pray for thee, 
and thou shalt live. But, if thou restore her not, thou shalt surely 
die, thou and all that is thine. 

Then Abimelech rose early in the morning and called his servants, 
and told all these things in their ears. And the men were sore afraid. 
And Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him: What hast thou 
done unto us? and how have I offended thee, that thou hast brought 
upon me and on my kingdom a great sin? Thou hast done deeds unto 
me that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said unto Abraham: 
What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said: 
Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and 
they will slay me for my wife’s sake. And yet she is indeed my sister; 
she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; 
and she became my wife. And it came to pass when God caused me 
to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her: This is the 
kindness which thou shalt show me; at whatever place whither we 
come, say of me: He is my brother. 

And Abimelech took sheep and oxen and man-servants and maid- 
servants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his 
wife. And Abimelech said: Behold, my land is before thee; dwell 
where it pleaseth thee. And unto Sarah he said: Behold, I have 
given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, he is to thee 
a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with’ thee and to all other, 
and before all men thou art righted. And Abraham prayed unto God; 
and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maid-servants, and 
they bare children. 

And God did to Sarah as he had spoken, at the set time of which 
He had spoken. And Sarah said: God hath made me to laugh; every 
one that heareth will laugh with me. And she said: Who would have 
said unto Abraham that Sarah should give children suck? for I have 
borne him a son in his old age. And the child grew and was weaned. 
And Abraham made a great feast the day Isaac was weaned. And 
Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had borne to 
Abraham, mocking. Wherefore she said unto Abraham: Cast out the 
bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be 
heir with my son, with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in 


1The circumstances of the change of the names of Abram and Sarai are told by P, 
in ch. xvii, A. V. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 169 


Abraham’s sight, because of his son. And God said unto Abraham: 
Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because 
of the bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken 
unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of 
the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. 

And Abraham rose up early in the morning and took bread and a 
bottle of water, and gave them unto Hagar, putting them on her shoul- 
der and the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered 
in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water was spent in the 
bottle, she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went 
and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow- 
shot; for she said: Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat 
over against him, and lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard 
fhe voice of the lad; and the angel of God called unto Hagar out of 
heaven and said unto her: What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not, for 
God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the 
lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great. nation. 
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went 
and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And God 
was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and he 
became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran; and his 
mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt. 

And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the 
chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying: God is with 
thee in all that thou doest. Now therefore swear unto me by God that 
thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s 
son. According to the kindness that I have done to thee, thou shalt 
do unto me and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned. And Abraham 
said, I will swear. And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well 
of water which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. And . 
Abimelech said: I wot not who hath done this thing; neither didst 
thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it but to-day. And Abraham took 
sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and they two made a 
covenant. And Abraham set seven ewe-lambs of the flock by themselves. 
And Abimelech said unto Abraham: What mean these seven ewe-lambs 
which thou hast set by themselves? And he said: These seven ewe- 
lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that it may be a witness unto me, 
that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beersheba 
(Well of an oath); because there they sware, both of them. So they 
made a covenant at Beersheba. 

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, 
and said unto him: Abraham! And he said: Behold, here I am. And 
he said: Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, 
and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt- 
offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell thee of. And 
Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took 
two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood 
for the burnt-offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which 
God had told him. Then, on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes 
and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men: 
Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and 
worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of 
the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son; and he took the fire 
in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And 
Isaac spake unto Abraham, his father, and said: My father! And he 


170 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


said: Here am I, my son. And he said: Behold the fire and the wood, 
but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said: My 
son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering. So they 
went both of them together. And they came to the place which God 
had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood 
in order, and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the 
wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to 
slay his son. And the messenger of Yahweh called unto him out of 
heaven, and said: Abraham, Abraham! And he said: Here am I. 
And he said: Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any- 
thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast 
not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted 
up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a 
thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered 
him up for a burnt-offering instead of his son.*. Then Abraham returned 
unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. 
And Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. 


II 
OF ESAU AND JACOB, TWIN SONS OF ISAAC 
(Genesis, xxvii, 41a, 43, 44b-45; xxvili, 10-12, 47-18, 20-22: xxix, 15-23, 
20-343 Xxx, 4-5, 17-24; Xxxi, 2,, 4-16, 20-22; 24-252,26-29 ose 
45-50, /53b-54; xxxil, 2-5, 14D-22, 24-335 xxxill, 18-20; xxxv, 1-207 

Now Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing wherewith his father 
had blessed him; and Rebekah told Jacob and said: Now therefore, 
my son, hear my voice; flee thou to Laban until thy brother’s anger 
turn away from thee, and he forget what thou hast done to him. Then 
I will send and fetch thee thence. Why should I be bereaved of you 
both in one day? And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went 
toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there 
all that night, because the sun was set. And he took one of the stones 
of the place, and put it under his head and lay down to sleep. And 
he dreamed; and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of 
it reached to heaven; and behold, the messengers of God ascending and 
descending upon it. And he was afraid, and said: How dreadful is 
this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the 
gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took 
the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar, 
and poured oil on the top of it. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying: If 
God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and 
will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come to my 
father’s house in peace; then shall Yahweh be my God, and this stone, 
which I have set up for a pillar, shall be the house of God. And of all 

that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.’ 


* ok *k * K *K 


Then Laban said unto Jacob: Because thou art my kinsman, should- 
est thou therefore serve me for naught? tell me, what shall thy wages 


1“And the messenger of Yahweh called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, 
and said: By myself have I sworn, saith Yahweh, because thou hast done this thing, and 
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multi- 
plying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand upon the seashore; 
and thy seed shall possess the gates of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations 
of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.’’ (xxii, 15-18.) (Fragment 
from a Judaic form of the same narrative.) 

2 The meeting of Jacob and Rachel and his introduction to Laban are given by J. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES in 


be? Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, 
and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were weak; 
but Rachel was beautiful in form and fair to look upon. And Jacob 
loved Rachel, and said: I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy 
younger daughter. And Laban said: It is better that I give her to 
thee than to another man; abide with me. And Jacob served seven 
years for Rachel; and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love 
he had to her. 

And Jacob said unto Laban: Give me my wife, for my days are 
fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all 
the men of the place and made a feast. And it came to pass in the 
evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and 
he went in unto her. And it came to pass that in the morning, behold, 
it was Leah. And he said to Laban: What is this thou hast done unto 
me? Did I not serve with thee for Rachel? Wherefore hast thou 
deceived me? And Laban said: It must not be so done in our country, 
to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfil her week and I will 
give thee Rachel also for the service which thou shalt do for me for 
seven more years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled the week for the one 
and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. And he went in 
also unto Rachel, but he loved Rachel more than Leah; and he served 
him yet another seven years. 

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel 
envied her sister; and she said unto Jacob: Give me children, or else 
I die. And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said: 
Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the 
womb? And she said: Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her, and 
she shall bear upon my knees. And Bilhah conceived and bare Jacob 
a son; and Rachel said: God hath judged me, but hath also heard my 
voice, and given me a son. Therefore called she his name Dan (He 
judged). And Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, conceived again, and bare Jacob 
a second son. And Rachel said: With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled 
with my sister, and I have prevailed. And she called his name Naphthali 
(My wrestling). And God hearkened unto Leah; and she conceived 
and bare Jacob a fifth son. And Leah said: God hath given me my 
hire, because I have given my handmaid to my husband. And she 
called his name Issachar (Bought). And Leah conceived again and 
bare Jacob a sixth son. And Leah said: God hath endowed me with 
a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me. And she called 
his name Zebulun (Dwelling). And afterwards she bare a daughter 
and called her name Dinah. 

And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened unto her and 
opened her womb. And she conceived and bare a son, and said: God 
hath taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph, (He 
will add), and said: Yahweh shall add to me another son: 

And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and behold, it was 
not toward him as before. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah 
to the field unto his flock, and said unto them: I see your father’s 
countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my 
father hath been with me; and ye know, that with all my power I 
have served your father. And your father hath deceived me and 
changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me. 
If he said: The speckled shall be your wages; then all the flock bare 
speckled; and if he said thus: The striped shall be thy hire; then 
all the flock bare striped. Thus hath God taken away the flocks of 


172 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


your father, and given them to me. And it came to pass at the time 
that the flocks conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes and saw in a 
dream, and behold, the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were 
striped, speckled and spotted. And the angel of God said unto me in 
a dream: Jacob! And I said: Here am I. And he said: Lift up 
thine eyes now and see, all the he-goats which leap upon the flock are 
striped, speckled and spotted; for I have seen all that Laban doeth 
unto thee. I am the God of Bethel, where thou didst anoint the pillar, 
and where thou didst vow a vow unto me. Now arise, get thee out 
from this land and return to the land of thy kindred. And Rachel 
and Leah answered and said unto him: Is there yet any portion or 
inheritance for us in our father’s house? Are we not counted of him 
strangers? for he hath sold us and hath quite devoured our money. 
But all the riches which God hath taken from our father belongs to 
us and to our children. Now, then, whatsoever God hath said unto 
thee, do. Then Jacob deceived Laban the Aramzan, in that he did not 
tell him that he was about to flee away. And he rose up and passed 
over the River. And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob 
had fled. But God came to Laban the Arameean in a dream by night, 
and said unto him: Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob, good or 
bad. Then Laban overtook Jacob and said unto Jacob: What hast 
thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares, and carried away my 
daughters as captives by the sword? Thou hast not suffered me to kiss 
my sons and my daughters. ' Now hast thou acted foolishly. It is in 
the power of my hand to do thee harm; but the God of your father 
spake unto me yesternight, saying: Take thou heed that thou speak 
not to Jacob either good or bad. And Jacob answered Laban saying: 
I was afraid lest thou shouldst tear thy daughters from me. These 
twenty years have I been in thy house. I served thee fourteen years 
for thy two daughters and six years for the flock, and thou hast changed 
my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham 
and the Fear of Isaac had been with us, surely thou hadst sent me away 
empty. God hath seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and 
rebuked thee yesternight. And Laban answered and said unto Jacob: 
The daughters are my daughters and the children are my children, 
and the flock is my flock, and all thou seest is mine; and what can I 
a unto these my daughters and unto their children which they have 
orne? 

Then Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar. Then Laban 
said: If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take wives 
besides my daughters, no man is with us; understand, God is witness 
between me and thee. And Jacob sware by the Fear of his father 
Isaac. ‘Then Jacob offered a sacrifice upon the mount, and called his 
kinsmen to eat bread. And they did eat bread and tarried all night in 
the mount. And early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his 
sons and his daughters and blessed them. And Laban departed and 
returned to his place. 

And Jacob went on his way, and the messengers of God met him. 
And when Jacob saw them, he said: This is God’s host. And he 
called the name of that place Mahanaim, (Encampments). 

* * * * * * * 

And Jacob took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau 
his brother; two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred 
ewes and twenty rams, thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 173 


and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals; and he delivered them 
into the hands of his servants, drove by drove, and said unto his 
servants: Pass over before me, and put a space between drove and 
drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying: When Esau my 
brother meeteth thee and asketh thee, saying: Whose man art thou? 
and whither art thou going? and whose are these droves before thee? 
then thou shalt say: Thy servant Jacob’s. It is a present sent unto 
my lord Esau; and behold, he himself is behind us. And so commanded 
he the second and the third and all that followed the droves, saying: 
In this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him. And say 
ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. (For he said 
to himself: I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, 
and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will look favorably 
upon me.) So the present passed over before him, but he remained 
that night in the camp. And he took them [his family] and sent them 
over the brook and all his possessions; and Jacob was left alone. And 
there wrestled a man with him until the break of day. And when 
he saw that he prevailed not over him, he touched the hollow of his 
thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint as he wrestled 
with him. And he said: Let me go! for the day breaketh. And he 
said: I will not let thee go unless thou bless me. And he said unto 
him: What is thy name? And he said: Jacob. And he said: Thy 
name shall be called no more Jacob (Supplanter), but Israel (Prince 
of God); for as a prince hast thou striven with God and with men, and 
hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said: Tell me, I pray thee, 
thy name. And he said: Why dost thou ask my name? and he blessed 
him there. And Jacob called the name of the place, Peniel (Face of 
God); for I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared. And 
as he passed over Peniel, the sun rose over him, and he halted upon 
his thigh. Therefore the Children of Israel eat not of the sinew that 
shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day, because 
he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank. 
And Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land 
of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram, and pitched his tent 
before the city. And he bought the piece of land where he had spread 
his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a 
hundred pieces of money. And he erected there an altar, and called 
it El-Elohe-Israel (El, God of Israel). 

And God said unto Jacob: Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; 
and make there an altar unto God who appeared unto thee when thou 
didst flee from the face of Esau, thy brother. Then Jacob said unto 
his household, and to all that were with him: Put away the strange 
gods that are among you, and be clean and change your garments; 
and let us arise and go up to Bethel. And I will make there an altar 
unto God who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with 
me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the 
strange gods which were in their hand, and the earrings which were 
in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. 
And they journeyed; and a great terror was upon the cities that were 
around about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. 
So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, (that is, Bethel), 
he and all the people with him. And he built there an altar and 
called the place El-Bethel (God of Bethel), because there God appeared 
unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. But Deborah, 


174 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak. 
And its name was called Allon-Bacuth (Oak of weeping). 

And they journeyed from Bethel, and there was still some little 
distance to come to Ephrath when Rachel travailed, and she had hard 
labor. And it came to pass when she was in hard labor, that the 
midwife said unto her: Fear not: thou shalt have this son also. And 
it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she was dying), that 
she called his name Benoni (The son of my sorrow); but his father 
called him Benjamin. And Rachel died and was buried in the way to 
Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: 
that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. . 


III 
OF JOSEPH, VIZIR OF EGYPT 


A.—The older sons of Jacob give Joseph to the Midianites, who sell him 
in Egypt. He has a gift for interpreting dreams. After some 
years, he interprets the dreams of the Pharaoh and is made Vizir. 
(Gen. xxxvii, 2b, 6-12, 19-20, 22-24, 23a,°¢,.29, 30,9507) 51,01 ee 
1-40.) 


Joseph, who was about seventeen years of age, was feeding the 
flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and 
with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought an 
evil report of them to his father. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and 
he told it to his brethren; and they hated him. And he said unto 
them: Hear, I pray you, this dream that I have dreamed. For we 


were binding sheaves in the field; and lo, my sheaf arose and stood 


upright, and lo, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance 
to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him: Shalt thou indeed reign 
over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated 
him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed 
yet another dream and told it to his brethren, and said: Behold, I 
have dreamed another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon 
and eleven stars made obeisance unto me. And he told it to his father 
and to his brethren; and his father rebuked him and said unto him: 
What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother 
and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to the earth to 
thee? And his brethren envied him, but his father kept the saying in 
mind. 

And his brethren went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem; and 
they said one to another: Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, 
and let us slay him and cast him into some pit; and we will say: 
Some beast hath devoured him. Then we shall see what will become 
of his dreams. But Reuben said unto them: Shed no blood; cast 
him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him. 
This he said that he might deliver him out of their hands, and restore 
him to his father. And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto 
his brethren, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, the striped coat 
that was on him, and they took him and east him into the pit; and 
the pit was empty, there was no water in it. Then there passed by 
Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew up Joseph and lifted him 
out of the pit; and they [the Midianites] brought him into Egypt. 


‘a 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 175 


And Reuben returned unto the pit; and behold, Joseph was not in the 
pit; and he rent his clothés. And he returned unto his brethren and 
said: The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? But the Midianites 
sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, a captain of the 
guard. 

Now it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king 
of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 
And Pharaoh was wroth against his two officers; and he put them in 
a ward in the house of the chief executioner. And the chief execu- 
tioner entrusted them to Joseph, and he waited on them; and they con- 
tinued some time in ward. 

And they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream 
in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, 
the chief butler and the chief baker of the king of Egypt who were 
bound in the prison. And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, 
and saw them; and behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh’s 
officers that were in ward in his master’s house, saying: Why look 
ye so sad to-day? And they said unto him: We have dreamed a 
dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them: 
Do not interpretations come from God? Tell me them, I pray you. 

Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him: 
In my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in the vine three 
shoots; and, as if it were blooming, its blossoms burst forth, its clusters 
brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand. And 
I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the 
cup into Pharaoh’s hand. And Joseph said unto him: This is the 
interpretation of it. The three shoots are three days; within three 
more days, Pharaoh shall lift up thy head and restore thee to thine 
office, and thou shalt give Pharaoh’s cup into his hand after the former 
manner when thou wast his cupbearer. But O, remember me when 
it shall be well with thee, and do me a kindness, I pray thee, and 
mention me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For indeed, 
I was stolen from the land of the Hebrews, and here, too, I have done 
~ nothing that they should put me into a dungeon. 

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he 
said unto Joseph: I also was dreaming, and behold, three baskets of 
white bread were upon my head, and in the uppermost basket all kinds 
of food for Pharaoh that a baker prepares; and birds were eating them 
from the baskets over my head. And Joseph answered and said: This 
is the interpretation thereof. The three baskets are three days; within 
the next three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and 
shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off 
thee. 

And it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birth- 
day, that he made a feast unto all his servants. And he lifted up the 
head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 
And he restored the chief butler unto his office so that he gave the 
cup into Pharaoh’s hand; but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph 
had interpreted to them. And the chief butler did not remember 
Joseph, but forgot him. 

Now it came to pass, at the end of two years, that Pharaoh dreamed; 
and behold, he was standing by the river, and, behold, coming up from 
the river were seven heifers good to look upon and fat of flesh; and 
they had been feeding in the Nile-grass. And behold, coming up after 
them from the river, seven other heifers, ill-favored and lean of flesh; 


176 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and they stood near the other heifers on the brink of the river. And 
the ill-favored and lean-fleshed heifers did eat up the seven well- 
favored and fat heifers. And Pharaoh awoke. And he slept and 
dreamed again. And behold, seven ears of grain growing on one 
stalk, full and good; and behold, seven ears, thin and blasted by the 
east wind, sprouting forth after them. And the seven thin ears 
swallowed up the seven thick and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke and 
behold, it was a dream. And it came to pass in the morning, that his 
spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of 
Egypt and all the wise men thereof; and Pharaoh told them his dreams, 
but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh. Then 
spake the chief butler to Pharaoh, saying: This day do I remember 
my sin. Pharaoh was wroth with his servants and put me in ward 
in the house of the chief executioner, me and the chief baker. And 
we dreamed a dream the same night, I and he; each according to the 
interpretation of his dream that he dreamed. And there was with us 
a Hebrew youth, a servant of the chief executioner; and we told him, 
and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each according to his dream 
did he interpret. And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it 
was; me he restored to mine office, and him he hanged. 

Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph (and they brought him hastily 
out of the dungeon); and he shaved himself and changed his raiment 
and came in unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph: I have 
dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. Now I 
have heard it said of thee that when thou hearest a dream, thou canst 
interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying: Not I; God will 
answer Pharaoh in full. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph: In my dream, 
behold, I was standing on the brink of the river. And behold, coming 
up from the river were seven heifers, fat of flesh and well formed; 
and they had been feeding in the river-grass. And lo, coming up 
after them, seven other heifers exceeding poor and lank and lean, worse 
than I have ever seen in all the land of Egypt. And the lean and 
ill-favored heifers did eat up the first seven fat heifers; and when 
they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten 
them, for they were as ill-favored as in the beginning. So I awoke. 
And I saw in my dream, and behold, seven ears growing on one stalk, 
full and good; and behold, seven ears, withered, thin and blasted by 
the east wind sprouted forth after them, and the thin ears swallowed 
up the seven good ears. And I have told it to the magicians, and there 
is no one who can expound it to me. 

Then Joseph said unto Pharaoh: The dream of Pharaoh is one; 
-what God is about to do he hath declared unto Pharaoh. The seven 
good heifers are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; 
the dream is one. And the seven lean and ill-favored heifers that 
came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty ears 
blasted with the east wind; they shall be seven years of famine. That 
is the thing which I spake unto Pharaoh; what God is about to do, 
he hath showed unto Pharaoh. Behold, there are coming seven years 
of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. And there shall 
arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be 
forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the 
land; (and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of the 
famine which followeth, for the famine shall be very severe). And 
that the dream was repeated unto Pharaoh, it is because the thing is 
established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. Now there- 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES WE 


fore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over 
the land of Egypt. And let them gather all the food of these good 
years that come, and let them keep it. And that food shall be a store 
for the land against the seven years of famine which shall be in the 
land of Egypt; that the land perish not because of the famine. And 
the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his 
servants. And Pharaoh said unto his servants: Can we find a man 
like this, in whom is the spirit of God? 

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph: Forasmuch as God hath showed 
thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou. Thou shalt 
be over my house, and according to thy word shall all my people be 
ruled. Only in the throne will I be greater than thou. 


B.—Joseph’s political career. His provision for his family. The coming 
of Jacob and his sons to Egypt. ‘Their settlement in Goshen. 
(Gen. xli, 45b, 47, 49, 50-53, 54b, 57; xlii, 1-38; xliii, 14; xlv, 1b, 2-3, 
db, 6, 7b-9a, 9c, 10b, 13, 15-18, 21b-26, 27b; xlvi, 1b, 2-5; xlvii, 5-6a; 
i Vini;4-2;.8-22; 1,°15-20.) 

Then Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. And in the seven 
plenteous years the earth brought forth abundantly. And Joseph gath- 
ered grain as the sand of the sea in great quantities, until he ceased to 
keep account, for there was no counting it. And to Joseph were born 
two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter 
of Potiphera, priest of On, bare unto him. And Joseph called the name 
of the firstborn Manasseh (Forgetting), for God, said he, hath caused 
me to forget all my suffering and all my father’s house. And the name 
of the second called he Ephraim (Fruitful); for God hath caused me to 
be fruitful in the land of my affliction. 

Now the seven years of plenty that was in the land of Egypt came 
to an end; and there was famine in all lands; but in all the land of 
Kgypt there was bread. And all the earth came into Egypt to Joseph 
to buy grain, because the famine was sore in all the world. 

Now when Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said unto 
his sons: Why do ye look one upon another? And he said: Behold, I 
have heard that there is grain in Egypt; get you down thither, and 
buy for us from thence; that we may live and not die. So Joseph’s ten 
brethren went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph’s 
brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said: Lest per- 
adventure mischief befall him. And the sons of Israel came among 
others who came to buy grain; for the famine was in the land of 
Canaan. 

Now Joseph was governor over the land; he it was that sold grain 
to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brethren came and bowed 
themselves down before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph 
saw his brethren and recognized them, but he dissembled with them 
and spake harshly unto them. And he said unto them: Whence come 
ye? And they said: From the land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph 
knew his brethren, but they did not know him. And Joseph remembered 
the dreams which he had dreamed of them, and said unto them: Ye 
are spies; to see the nakedness of the land are ye come. And they said 
unto him: Nay, my lord; but thy servants have come to buy food. We 
are all one man’s sons; we are true men; thy servants are not spies. 
And he said unto them: Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land are 
ye come. And they said: Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons 
of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is this day 


178 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


with our father, and one is not. And Joseph said unto them: This is 
what I spake unto you, saying: Ye are spies. Hereby ye shall be 
proved. As Pharaoh lives, ye shall not go hence unless your youngest 
brother come hither. Send one of you that he may bring your brother, 
and ye shall be bound, that your words may be proved whether there 
be truth in you; but if not, as Pharaoh lives ye are spies. And he put 
them in ward for three days. And on the third day Joseph said unto 
them: This do and live, for I fear God. If ye be true men, let one of 
your brethren be bound in your prison-house; and go ye, carry again 
for the famine in your houses; and bring your youngest brother unto me; 
so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. 
And they said one to another: Truly we are guilty concerning our 
brother when we saw the anguish of his soul as he besought us and we 
would not hear. Therefore is this distress come upon us. And Reuben 
answered them, saying: Spake I not unto you saying, Sin not against 
the boy; and ye would not hear? ‘Therefore behold, his blood is re- 
quired. And they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he had 
spoken to them through an interpreter. And he turned away from 
them and wept. And he turned back to them and spake unto them; 
and he took Simeon from among them and bound him before their 
eyes. Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with grain, and 
to restore every man’s money into his sack, and to give them pro- 
vision for the way; and thus was it done unto them. And they 
laded their asses with the grain, and departed thence. And as one of 
them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his 
money; for behold, it was in his sack’s mouth. And he said unto his 
brethren: My money is restored, and lo, it is even in my sack. And 
their heart failed them, and they said anxiously one to another, What 
is this that God hath done unto us? 

And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and 
told him all that had befallen them, saying: The man, the lord of the 
land, spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. And 
we said unto him: We are true men, we are no spies; we are twelve 
brethren, sons of one father; one is not, and the youngest is this day 
with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the lord of the 
country, said unto us: Hereby shall I know that ye are true men. 
Leave one of your brethren with me, and take food for the famine of 
your households, and go. And bring your youngest brother unto me; 
then shall I know that ye are no spies but true men. Your brother will 
I give unto you, and ye shall traffic in the land. 

Now it came to pass, as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every 
man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father 
saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their father 
said unto them: Me have ye bereaved. Joseph is not and Simeon is 
not, and ye will take Benjamin away; all these things are against me. 
And Reuben spake unto his father, saying: Slay my two sons, if I 
bring him not to thee. Put him into my hand, and I will bring him 
back to thee. And he said: God Almighty give you mercy before the 
man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin. And as 
for me, if I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. 


* * * * * * * 
Now there stood no man with him when Joseph made himself known 


unto his brethren. And he wept aloud; and the Egyptians and the 
house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren: I am 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 7D 


Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer 
him, for they were troubled at his presence: [and he said] Be not 
angry with yourselves, for God did send me before you to preserve life. 
For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and there are 
five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 
And God sent me before you to save your lives by a great deliverance. 
so now it was not you that sent me hither, but God. And He hath made 
me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house, and a ruler through- 
out all the land of Egypt. Haste ye and say [unto my father:] Thus 
saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt; and thou 
shalt be near unto me. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in 
Egypt and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring my 
father down hither. Then he kissed all his brethren and wept over 
them, and after that his brethren talked with him. 

And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh’s house, that Joseph’s 
brethren were come; and it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. And 
Pharaoh said unto Joseph: Say unto thy brethren: This do ye; lade 
your beasts and go, get you unto the land of Canaan, and take your 
father and your households and come unto me; and I will give you 
the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. So 
Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, 
and gave them provision for the way. To each one of them he gave 
changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of 
silver and five changes of raiment. And to his father he sent after 
this manner: ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten 
asses laden with grain and bread and meat for his father by the way. 
So he sent his brethren away, and they departed; and he said unto 
them: See that ye fall not out by the way. 

And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan 
unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying: Joseph is yet alive, and 
he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for 
he believed them not. But when he saw the wagons which Joseph had 
sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And he 
went to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father 
Isaac. And God spake to Israel in visions of the night, and said: Jacob! 
Jacob! And he said: Here am I. And he said: I am God, the God of 
thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of 
thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt, and I will 
surely bring thee up again; and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine 
eyes. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried 
Jacob, their father, and their little ones and their wives, in the wagons 
which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 

And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying: Thy father and thy 
brethren are come unto thee; the land of Egypt is before thee; in the 
best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell. 


And it came to pass after these things, that one said to Joseph: Be- 
hold, thy father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh 
and Benjamin. And one told Jacob: Behold, thy son Joseph cometh 
unto thee. And Israel strengthened himself, and sat up on the bed. 
And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said: Who are these? And Joseph 
said unto his father: They are my sons, whom God hath given me 
here. And he said: Bring them unto me, I pray thee, and TI will bless 
them. (Now the eyes of Israel were dimmed with age, so that he could 
not see.) And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them 
and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph: I had not thought 


180 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


to see thy face, and lo, God hath showed me also thy seed. And Joseph 
brought them out from between his knees, and bowed his face to 
the earth. 

And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s 
left hand and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel’s right hand, 
and brought them near unto him. And Israel stretched out his right 
hand and laid it upon Ephraim’s head who was the younger, and his left 
hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh 
was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph and said: The God before 
whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who hath been 
my shepherd all my life long unto this day, the Messenger who hath 
redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named in 
them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them 
grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Now when Joseph 
saw that his father was laying his right hand on the head of Ephraim 
it displeased him; and he held up his father’s hand to remove it from 
Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto his father: 
Not so, my father, for this is the first-born; put thy right hand upon his 
head. And his father refused and said: I know it, my son, I know it; 
he also shall become a great people, and he also shall be great; howbeit, 
his younger brother shall be goodlier than he, and his seed shall become 
a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying: By thee 
shall Israel bless, saying: God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. 
And he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph: Be- 
hold, I die; but God will be with you and bring you back unto the land of 
your fathers. Moreover, I have given unto thee one portion above thy 
brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword 
and with my bow. 

Now, when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they 
said: Joseph peradventure will hate us, and he will certainly requite 
us all the evil which we did unto him. And they did plead with Joseph, 
saying: Thy father did command before he died, saying: Thus shall ye 
say unto Joseph: Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren 
and their sin; for they did unto thee evil. And now, we pray thee, 
forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. 

And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also 
went and fell down before him and they said: Behold, we are thy 
servants. And Joseph said unto them: Fear ye not! for am I in the 
place of God? Ye indeed devised evil against me, but God meant it for 
good, in order that he might do as at this day,—save much people alive. 
And now, fear ye not; I will nourish you and your little ones. Thus he 
comforted them and spake kindly unto them. 

And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s house. And Joseph 
lived a hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of 
the third generation; the children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, 
were brought up upon Joseph’s knees. And Joseph said unto his 
brethren: I am dying; but God will surely visit you and bring you up 
from this land unto the land which he confirmed by oath to Abraham, 
to Isaac and to Jacob. Then Joseph took an oath of the Children of 
Israel, saying: God will surely visit you, and ye will carry up my 
bones from here. 

So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old; and they em- 
balmed him, and he was put in a sarcophagus in Egypt. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 181 


C. THE BLESSING OF JACOB’ 
(Gen. xlix, 1-27, 33) 


And Jacob called unto his sons and said: Gather yourselves together 
that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. 


Come together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, 
And hearken unto Israel, your father! 


Reuben, my first-born art thou, 
My might and the beginning of my strength. 
The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. 
Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, 
For thou didst go up to thy father’s bed. 
Thus didst thou defile it; he went up to my couch! 


Simeon and Levi are brthren; 
Weapons of oppression are their swords. 
Enter not into their secret, my mind! 
Be not joined with their assembly, my soul!! 
In their wrath, they slew a man, and in their self-wll 
They houghed oxen. 
Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, 
And their anger, for it was cruel. 
I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. 


Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise, 
Thy hand is in the neck of thine enemies. 
Unto thee shall bow down the sons of thy father. 
Thy whelp of a lion is Judah; 
From the prey, my son, thou hast risen. 
He stooped, he lay in wait like a lion, and like a lioness; 
Who shall arouse him? 
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, 
Nor a law-giver from between his feet, 
Until he shall come to Shiloh 
And the obedience of the people is his. 
Binding pe foal to the vine, the she-ass’s colt to the choice vine. 
He hath cleansed his garments in wine, 
And his vesture in the blood of grapes. 


Zebulon on the sea-coast shall dwell, he shall be a haven for ships. 
And his border shall stretch to Zidon. 
Issachar is a well-grown ass settling down between burdens; 
And he saw a resting-place, that it was good, 
And the land, that it was pleasant; 
And he bowed his shoulder to bear 
And became a servant to tribute. 


Dan shall judge his people like one of the tribes of Israel; 
Dan shall be a pane ent on the way, an adder upon the path, 
That biteth the horse’s heels, 
So that the rider falleth backwards. 
I have waited for thy salvation, Yahweh! 


Gad! a troop shall press upon him; he shall press upon their heel. 
Asher! his bread shall be rich; 
He shall yield dainties for kings. 

Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words. 


1A late poem in the form of a prophecy, which gives the conditions of the tribes in 
E’s day, and which is generally attributed to him. Dr. Driver gives it to J 


182 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Joseph is a fruitful bough, 
A fruitful bough by a fountain, the branches run over the wall. 
The archers have sorely provoked him 
And shot at and strongly attacked him, 
But his bow preserved its strength, 
And active was the power of his hands. 

Through the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, 
(Thence the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel), 
Through the God of thy father who shall help thee, 

And the Almighty who shall bless thee 
With blessings of the heaven above, 
Blessings of the deep lying beneath, 
Blessings of the breast and of the womb. 
The blessings of thy father have prevailed 
Above the blessings of my fore-fathers, 
Unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. 
They shall be upon the head of Joseph, 
Upon the crown of the head of him 
Who was separated from his brethren. 


Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf 
In the morning he shall devour the prey, 
And in the evening he shall apportion the spoil. 


All these are the twelve tribes of Israel; and this is it which their 
father spake unto them and blessed them. Then he gathered up his feet 
into the bed, and yielded up the ghost; and he was gathered unto his 
people. 


IV 
OF MOSES, THE LIBERATOR OF HIS PEOPLE 


A. His birth and training. His commission to liberate his people. The 
crossing of the Red Sea. The battle with the Amalekites. (Exodus, 
i, 15-233,1i, 1-14: iii, 4) 4b, 6; 9-157°19-22* 1vy 44018. 20b-2 1 7-26 
Revi, 49 vii ib, 1 7b. 20b 253 ix, 22-234).254a,35as xe lane tae 
20-23, 27; xi, 1-3; xii, 31-36, 38-39, 42a; xiii, 17-19; xiv, 8-9, 10b, 19a, 
26-29; xv, 1, 20-21; xvii, 1-6, 8-10.) 

Now the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of whom 
the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah, and 
said: When ye shall deliver the Hebrew women and see them on the 
birth-stool, if it be a son then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, 
then she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not as the 
King of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive. And 
the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them: Why 
have ye done this thing and saved the men-children alive? And the 
midwives said unto Pharaoh: Because the Hebrew women are not like 
the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and are delivered before 
the midwives come in to them. Therefore God dealt well by the mid- 
wives; and because the midwives feared God, he made them houses. 
And Pharaoh charged all the people, saying: Every son that is born, ye 
shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. 

Now a man of the house of. Levi went and took to wife a daughter of 
Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son; and when she saw 
that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she 
could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of papyrus reed and 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 183 


covered it with bitumen and with pitch, and she put the child in it and 
set it among the reeds by the river’s brink; and his sister took her stand 
at a distance to see what would happen to him. And the daughter of 
Pharaoh came down to the river to bathe, and her maidens walked along 
by the riverside, and she saw the ark among the reeds and sent her 
maid to get it; and she opened it and saw the child, and behold, the babe 
was weeping. And she had compassion on him and said: This is one of 
the Hebrews’ children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter: 
Shall I go and call thee a nurse from the Hebrew women that she 
may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her: 
Go. And the maiden went and called the babe’s mother. And Pharaoh’s 
daughter said unto her: ‘Take this child away and nurse him for me, 
and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and 
nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to the daughter 
of Pharaoh and he became her son. And she called his name Moses; and 
she said: Because I drew him out of the water. 

And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he 
went forth among his brethren, and saw their heavy tasks; and he saw 
an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this 
way and that way; and, when he saw there was no one, he killed the 
Egyptian and buried him in the sand. And he went forth a second day, 
and behold, two Hebrew men fighting. And he said to the aggressor: 
Why are you beating your neighbor? And he said: Who has made 
you a prince and a judge over us? Art thou thinking to kill me, as thou 
didst the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said: Surely this thing is 
known. 

* xs * * * * * 


Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of 
Midian; and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to 
the mountain of God, to Horeb. And God called unto him out of the 
midst of the bush, and said: Moses, Moses! And he said: Here am I. 
And He said: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the 
God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. (And Moses hid his face, for he 
was afraid to look upon God.) Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the 
Children of Israel is come unto Me, and I have also seen the oppression 
wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I 
will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people, 
the Children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God: Who 
am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the 
Children of Israel out of Egypt? And He said: Surely I will be with 
thee; and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When 
thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, thou shalt serve God 
upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God: Behold, when I come 
to the Children of Israel and say unto them: The God of your fathers 
hath sent me unto you; and they shall say unto me: What is His name? 
what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses: I AM THAT 
I AM. And He said: Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel; 
I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said further unto Moses: Thus 
shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel: YAHWEH, the God of your 
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, 
hath sent me unto you. And I am sure that the king of Egypt 
will not let you go, save by a strong hand. And I will stretch out My 
hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the midst 
thereof; and after that, he will let you go. And I will give this people 
favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come to pass. that, 


184 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


when ye go, ye shall not go empty, but every woman shall borrow of 
her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver 
and jewels of gold and raiment; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. And 
thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. 

And Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said 
unto him: Let me go, I pray thee, and return to my brethren which are 
in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said unto Moses: 
Go in peace. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And Yahweh * 
said unto Moses: When thou goest back into Egypt, see that thou 
doest all the wonders before Pharaoh that I have put in thine hand. 
But I will harden his heart that he shall not let My people go. 

And Yahweh said unto Aaron: Go into the wilderness to meet 
Moses. And he went and met him in the Mount of God and kissed him. 
And Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh wherewith He had sent 
him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. . . . And the 
king of Egypt said unto them: Why do ye, Moses and Aaron, distract 
the people from their work? Get you unto your tasks. 

Then Yahweh said unto Moses: Now shalt thou see what I will do 
unto Pharaoh, for with a strong hand shall he expel them, and with a 
strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. Get thee unto Pharaoh 
in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water. And thou shalt stand 
by the river’s brink against he come. And thou shalt smite with the 
rod that is in thine hand upon the waters, and they shall be turned to 
blood. And he lifted up the red and smote the waters in the river, in the 
sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his seranvts; and all the waters that 
were in the river were turned into blood. And Pharaoh turned and 
went into his house. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Stretch forth thine hand toward 
heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man and 
upon beast and upon every herb of the field throughout the land of 
Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and Yahweh 
sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground. And 
the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, 
both man and beast; and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither 
would he let the Children of Israel go. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Stretch out thine hand over the land 
of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt 
and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And 
Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the locusts 
went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt; 
and they did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees 
which the hail had left. But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so 
that he would not let the Children of Israel go. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, 
that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that 
may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and 
there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days; they saw 
not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. But 
all the Chidren of Israel had light in their dwellings. But Yahweh 
hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Yet will I bring one plague more upon 
Pharaoh and upon Egypt, after which he will let you go hence; when he 
sends you away, he will surely thrust you out hence. Speak now in 
the ears of the people that they shall borrow every man of his neighbor 


1 Note the change from the word God to that of Yahweh for the Deity of Israel. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 185 


and every woman from her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold. 
And Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; (also 
the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt in the sight of 
Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.) ? 

And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night and said: Rise 
up and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the Children 
of Israel; and go, serve Yahweh, as ye have said. Also take your flocks 
and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And 
the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them 
out of the land in haste; for they said: We be all dead men. And the 
people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs 
being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the Children 
of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the 
Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment. And Yah- 
weh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they 
lent unto them; and they spoiled the Egyptians. And a mixed multitude 
went up also with them, and flocks and herds, even very much eattle. 
And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought 
forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened because they could not tarry, 
neither had they prepared for themselves any victual. It is a night to 
be much observed unto Yahweh for bringing them out from the land 
of Egypt. 

And it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God 
did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although 
that was near; for God said: Lest the people repent when they see war, 
and they return into Egypt. But God led the people about by way of 
the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the Children of Israel went up well 
equipped out of the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph 
with him; for he had strictly sworn the Children of Israel, saying: God 
will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones hence with you. 

Now Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he 
pursued after the Children of Israel; for the Children of Israel went out 
with a high hand. And the Egyptians pursued after them and overtook 
them encamping by the sea. And the Children of Israel cried out unto 
Yahweh. And Yahweh said unto Moses: Wherefore criest thou unto 
Me? Speak unto the Children of Israel that they go forward. And lift 
thou up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it, 
and the Children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry 
ground. And the messenger of God, who went before the camp of Israel, 
removed from before them and stood behind them. And Moses stretched 
forth his hand over the sea, and the waters were divided, and the 
Children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground, and 
the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. 
And the Egyptians went in after them into the midst of the sea. And 
Yahweh said unto Moses: Stretch out thy hand over the sea, that the 
waters may come back upon the Egyptians. And Moses stretched forth 
his hand over the sea; and the waters returned and covered the chariots 
and the horsemen, even all the host of Pharaoh that went after them 
into the midst of the sea; there remained not so much as one of them. 
But the Children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the 
sea; and the waters were a wall upon their right hand and on their left. 

Then sang Moses and the Children of Israel this song unto Yahweh, 
and spake, saying: 

I will sing unto Yahweh, for He is highly exalted, 
The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea, 


186 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his 
horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea 
upon them, but the Children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst 
of the sea. 

And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in 
her hand; and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and 
with dances. And Miriam sang unto them: 


Sing ye unto Yahweh, for He is highly exalted; 
The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. 


Now the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured 
against Moses and said: Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought us 
out of Egypt to kill us and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto 
Yahweh, saying: What shall I do unto this people? they be almost 
ready to stone me. And Yahweh said unto Moses: Go on before the 
people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod wherewith 
thou didst smite the river, take in thy hand and go. Behold, I will stand 
before thee upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and 
there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses 
did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 

Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses 
said unto Joshua: Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. 
To-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in 
my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with 
Amalek; and Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 
And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel pre- 
vailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’s 
hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and 
he sat thereon. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the 
one side and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady 
until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and 
his people with the edge of the sword. And Yahweh said unto Moses: 
Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of 
Joshua; for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from 
under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it 
Yahweh-nissi (Yahweh my banner); for he said: By the throne of 
Yah, Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. 


B. The Feast of the Covenant. The Legislation of Moses. The people 
ratify the Covenant. Moses returns to the mount. The apostasy of 
the people, and the sin of Aaron. The anger of Moses. The com- 
mand to leave Horeb. The form of worship in the wilderness. 
(Exodus, xvili; xix, 2b-19; xx, 1-21; xxiii, 20-23; xxiv, 3-8, 12-14, 18b; 
AXA MBO XXX a. 1 Ordo XK See 

When Jethro the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, heard 
of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, and that 

Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt, then Jethro took Zipporah, 

Moses’s wife, after he had sent her back, and her two sons (of whom 

the name of the one was Gershom, for he said: I have been a stranger 

in a foreign land; and the name of the other Eliezer (God my help)— 
for the God of my father, said he, was my help and delivered me from 
the hand of Pharaoh) ;—and Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, came with his 
sons and his wife into the wilderness unto Moses where he was encamped 
at the mount of God. And he said unto Moses: I, thy father-in-law, 
am come unto thee and thy wife and her two sons with her. And 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 187 


Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and did obeisance and kissed 
him. And they asked each other of their welfare, and they came into 
the tent. And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jahweh had done 
to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the travail that had 
come upon them by the way, and how Yahweh had delivered them. And 
Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which Yahweh had showed to Israel, 
whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Jethro 
said: Blessed be Yahweh who hath delivered you out of the hand of 
the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh. Now know I that 
YAHWEH is greater than all the gods; for in the matter wherein they 
dealt proudly, He was above them. And Jethro took a burnt-offering 
and sacrifices for God; and Aaron came and all the elders of Israel to 
eat bread with Moses’s father-in-law before God. 

And it came to pass, on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the 
people; and the people stood by Moses from morning unto the evening. 
And when Moses’s father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he 
said: What is this thing that thou doest for the people? Why sittest 
thou thyself alone, and all the people are attendant upon thee from 
morning until evening? And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because 
the people come to me to enquire of God. When they have a matter, 
they come unto me, and I judge between one and another, and I make 
them know the statutes of God and His laws. And Moses’ father-in-law 
said unto him: The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely 
wear away, both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing 
is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. 
Hearken now unto my voice. I will give thee counsel, and God shall be 
with thee. Be thou for the people instead of God, that thou mayest bring 
their causes unto God. And thou shalt teach them ordinances and 
laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk and the 
work that they must do. And thou shalt select out of all the people able 
men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place 
over them as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties 
and rulers of tens, and let them judge the people at all seasons. And 
it shall be that every great matter they shall bring to thee, but every 
small matter they shall judge. So shall the burden be lessened for thee, 
and they shall bear it with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and God 
command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all these 
people shall go to their places in peace. 

So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that 
he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them 
heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of 
fifties and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons; 
the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they 
judged themselves. And Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went 
his way into his own land. And Israel encamped before the mount. 

And Moses went up unto God, and He called unto him out of the 
mountain, saying: Thus shall ye say to the house of Jacob, and tell 
the Children of Israel. Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and 
how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now 
therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed and keep My covenant, then 
ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the 
earth is Mine; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a 
holy nation. 

And Moses came and ealled for the elders of the people, and laid 
before them all these words which Yahweh had commanded him. And 


188 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


all the people answered together and said: All that Yahweh hath spoken 
will we do. And Moses reported the words of the people unto Yahweh. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Go unto the people and let them 
sanctify themselves to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their 
clothes and be ready against the third day; for the third day Yahweh 
will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. And 
thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed 
to yourselves in going up to the mount, lest ye touch the border of it; 
whosoever toucheth the mount shall surely die. No hand shall touch it 
but he shall surely be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, it shall 
not live. And Moses went down from the mount and sanctified the 
people, and they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people: 
Be ready against the third day; come not near a woman. 

And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were 
thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the 
voice of a trumpet, exceeding loud. And Moses brought forth the people 
out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether part of the 
mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on smoke, because Yahweh 
descended upon it in fire. And the smoke thereof ascended as the 
smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when 
the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, 
Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And God spake all 
these words, saying: 

I am YAHWEH thy GOD, which brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods 
before Me. 

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness 
of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, 
or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down 
thyself to them nor serve them; for I, Yahweh, thy God, am a jealous 
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the 
third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy 
unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments. 

Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh, thy God, in vain; for 
Yahweh will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. 

Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou 
labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of Yahweh 
thy God. In it thou shalt not do any manner of work; thou, nor thy 
son nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant nor thy 
cattle, nor the stranger within thy gates. For, in six days Yahweh 
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the 
seventh day; wherefore Yahweh blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. 

Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the — 
land which Yahweh, thy God, giveth thee. 

Thou shalt not kill. 

Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

Thou shalt not steal. 

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor’s wife; nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox 
nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s. 

And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the 
noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people 
saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses: 
Speak thou with us and we will hear; but let not God speak with us lest | 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 189 


we die. And Moses said unto the people: Fear not; for God is come 
to prove you, and that His fear may be before you, that ye sin not. And 
the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness 
where God was. And Yahweh said unto Moses: Thus shalt thou say 
unto the Children of Israel: Ye have seen that I have talked with you 
from heaven. Ye shall not make with Me gods of silver, nor gods of 
gold shall ye make unto you. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto 
Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offer- 
ings, thy sheep and thine oxen; in all places where I record My name, 
I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. And if you wilt make an 
altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for, if thou lift up 
thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by 
steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. 

Behold, I send a messenger before thee, to keep thee by the way 
and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Take heed of 
him, and hearken unto his voice. Be not rebellious against him, for he 
will not pardon thy transgression; for My name is in him. But, if thou 
wilt indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I command, then will 
I be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thy adver- 
saries. For My messenger shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto 
the Amorite and the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite and 
the Jebusite, and I will cut them off. 

And Moses came and told the people all the words of Yahweh, and 
all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said: 
All the words which Yahweh hath spoken we will do. And Moses wrote 
all the words of Yahweh, and rose up early in the morning, and builded 
an altar under the mount, and twelve pillars according to the twelve 
tribes of Israel. And he sent the young men of the Children of Israel 
who offered burnt-offerings and sacrificed peace-offerings unto Yahweh. 
And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood 
he dashed against the altar. And he took the Book of the Covenant, and 
read in the hearing of the people; and they said: All that Yahweh hath 
spoken will we do, and obey. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled 
‘it upon the people, and said: Behold, the blood of the Covenant which 
Yahweh hath made with you, in agreement with all these words. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Come up to Me into the mount, and 
be there; and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the Law of the 
Covenant which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. And 
Moses rose up, and Joshua his servant; and Moses went up to the mount 
of God. And unto the elders he said: Tarry ye here for us, until we 
come back to you; and behold, ye have Aaron and Hur with you; who- 
soever hath a cause, let him come near unto them. And Moses was in 
the mount forty days and forty nights. 

And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of speaking 
with him upon the mount, the two tables of the testimony, tables of 
stone, written with the finger of God. 

And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of 
the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and 
said unto him: Up, make us gods that shall go up before us; for as for 
this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know 
not what has become of him. And Aaron said unto them: Break off 
the golden rings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons and of 
your daughters, and bring them to me. And all the people brake off 
the golden rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 
And he received it at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool 


190 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and made a molten calf. And they said: These be thy gods, O Israel, 
which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw 
this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron cried aloud and said, To- 
morrow shall be a feast to Yahweh. And they rose up early on the 
morrow and offered burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings. And 
the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Go, get thee down; for thy people, 
which thou didst bring up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted 
themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I 
commanded them. They have made them a molten calf and have wor- 
shiped it, and have sacrificed unto it and said: These be thy gods, O 
Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 

And Moses turned and went down from the mount, with the two 
tables of the testimony in his hand, tables of stone written with the 
finger of God; the tables were written on both their sides, on the one 
side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work 
of God, and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables. 
And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said 
unto Moses: There is a sound of battle in the camp. And he said: 
This is not the shout of victory, nor is it the cry of the conquered; it 
is the voice of singing that I hear. And it came to pass, as soon as he 
came nigh to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. And 
Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and 
brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had 
made and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it 
upon the water, and made the Children of Israel to drink of it. 

And Moses said unto Aaron: What did this people do unto thee, 
that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said: 
Let not the anger of my lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people that 
they are set on evil; for they said unto me: Make us gods which 
shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out 
of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him. And I 
said unto them: Let them break off their gold for me; and they gave 
it me, and I threw it into the fire, and there came out this calf. And 
when Moses saw that the people had become unruly (for Aaron had let 
them loose to be mocked of their enemies), then Moses stood at the 
entrance to the camp, and said: Whoso is for Yahweh, let him come 
unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves unto him. And 
he said unto them: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: Put ye 
every man his sword upon his thigh, and go to and fro from gate to 
gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother and every 
man his neighbor and every man his companion. And the sons of Levi 


did according to the words of Moses; and there fell of the people that 


day about three thousand men. Then Moses said: Consecrate your- 
selves to-day to Yahweh, even every man against his son and against 
his brother, that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day. And it 
came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people: Ye 
have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto Yahweh; peradven- 
ture I shall make atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto 
Yahweh, and said: Alas, this people have sinned a great sin, and have 
made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt, forgive their sin; and 
if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which Thou hast written. 
And Yahweh said unto Moses: Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him 
will I blot out of My book; therefore now go, lead the people to the 
place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, My messenger shall go 


ae 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 1914 


before thee. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin 
upon them. And Yahweh plagued the people, because they made the 
calf which Aaron made. 

And Yahweh said unto Moses: Depart and go up hence, thou and 
the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto 
the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: 
Unto thy seed will I give it. And I will send a messenger before thee 
(and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite and 
the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite), unto a land flowing with milk 
and honey; but I will not go up in the midst of thee (for thou art a 
stiffnecked people), lest I consume thee in the way. And when the peo- 
ple heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and no man did put on him 
his ornaments. For Yahweh had said unto Moses: Say unto the 
Children of Israel: Ye are a stiffnecked people; I will come up into the 
midst of thee in a moment and consume thee; therefore now put off 
thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And 
the Children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from 
mount Horeb onwards. 

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it without the camp, 
afar off from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. And it 
came to pass that everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the Tent 
of Meeting which was without the camp. And it came to pass when 
Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up and took his 
stand, every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he was 
gone into the Tent. And it came to pass when Moses entered into the 
Tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the Tent, 
and Yahweh spake with Moses. And all the people saw the pillar of 
cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and wor- 
shipped, every man at his tent door. And Yahweh spake with Moses 
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he returned into 
the camp; but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed 
not out of the Tent. 


C. The Journey northward from Sinai. The Jealousy of Aaron and 
Miriam. Moses sends men to survey Canaan. They report favor- 
ably, but the people refuse to advance. Yahweh sends upon them 
the plague of the fiery serpents. Moses raises for their cure the 
Brazen Serpent. Moses and Aaron are debarred from entering Ca- 
naan. Moses conquers Sihon king of the Amorites, and Israel 
dwells in their land. Balak, king of Moab, sends for Balaam to 
curse them. The Blessing of Balaam. Joshua is charged with the 
leadership of the people, and Moses dies in Moab. (Numbers, x, 
33-36; xi, 1-4, 16-17, 24-30; xii, 1-16; xiv, 4a, 5-7, 10, 37-38; xx, 1b, 
3a, 5, 7, 8b, c, 9-41, 13-18, 22a, c, 28b; xxi, 4b-9, 14b-15, 24-24a; xxii, 
9-3a, 5a, 6a, c, 8-10, 12-16, 18a, 19-21a, c, 37-38, 40-41; xxili, 1-26; 
xxiv, 25; xxv, 1a, 3, 5; Deut. xxxi, 14-15, 23; xxxiv, 5-6.) 


Then they set forward from the mount of God three days’ journey; 
and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh went before them three days’ 
journey to seek a resting-place for them. And the cloud of Yahweh was 
over them by day, when they set forward from the camp. And when the 
ark set forward, Moses said: Rise up, O Yahweh, and let Thine enemies 
be scattered, and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee. And when 
it rested, he said: Return, O Yahweh, unto the ten thousands of 


Israel. 


192 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Now Yahweh heard the people as they were complaining, and it dis- 
pleased Him, and his anger was kindled; and the fire of Yahweh burnt 
among them, and consumed those who were in the uttermost parts of 
the camp. And the people cried unto Moses, and, when Moses prayed 
unto Yahweh, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the 
place Taberah (a burning); because the fire of Yahweh had burnt 
among them. 

Then Yahweh said unto Moses: Gather unto Me seventy men of the 
elders of Israel whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and 
officers over them, and bring them unto the Tent of Meeting, that they 
may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee 
there. And I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put 
it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, 
that thou bear it not thyself alone. So he gathered seventy men of the 
elders of the people, and ‘set them round about the tent. And Yahweh 
came down in a cloud and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that 
was upon him, and gave it to the seventy elders; and it came to pass 
when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied; but no longer. But 
there remained two men in the camp (the name of the one was Eldad, 
and the name of the other, Medad), and the spirit rested upon them, and 
they were of them who were registered, but went not out to the tent. 
Then a young man ran and told Moses, saying: Eldad and Medad are 
prophesying in the camp. Then Joshua the son of Nun who was attend- 
ing Moses,—one of his chosen men,—answered and said: My lord Moses, 
forbid them. And Moses said unto him: Art thou jealous for my 
sake? Would that Yahweh would make all the people prophets, that He 
would put His spirit upon them! And Moses gat him into the camp, 
he and all the elders of Israel. 

Now Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Cushite 
woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. 
And they said: Hath Yahweh spoken indeed only by Moses? hath He 
not also spoken by us? And Yahweh heard. Now the man Moses was 
very humble, above all the men who were on the earth. And Yahweh 
said suddenly unto Moses and to Aaron and to Miriam: Come out, ye 
three, to the Tent of Meeting. And they three came out. And Yahweh 
came down in a pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tent, and 
called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth. And He said: 


Hear now My words! If there be a prophet among you, 
In a vision will [make Myself known, in a dream will I speak to him. 
Not so with My servant Moses, who is faithful in all My house; 
Mouth to mouth will I speak to him, plainly and not in parables; 
The similitude of Yahweh shall he see; 
Then wherefore do ye not fear to speak 
Against My servant Moses? / 


And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against them, and He departed. 
And when the cloud removed from the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, 
white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was 
leprous. 

Then Aaron said unto Moses: Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not 
upon us as sin this folly we have committed and wherein we are guilty. 
Let her not, I pray thee, be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed 
when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. And Moses cried unto 
Yahweh, saying: Heal her, God, I beseech Thee! And Yahweh said 
unto Moses: If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 193 


ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, 
and after that, let her be brought in again. And Miriam was shut out 
from the camp seven days; and the people journeyed not till Miriam 
was brought in again. 

Then Moses sent men to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto 
them: Go up into the mountains, and see what the land is, whether it 
be fat or lean, whether there be wood there or not. And be of good 
courage, and bring back some of the fruit of the land. Now the time 
was the time of the first-ripe grapes. And they came to the brook Esh- 
col. (The place was called the Valley of Eshcol because of the cluster 
of grapes which the Israelites cut down from there.) And they re- 
turned from spying out the land, and they spread an evil report of the 
land, saying: The land through which we have passed is a land that 
eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the men we saw were of 
great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim; and we were in our own 
sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. 

And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried aloud. And 
all the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; 
and the whole congregation said unto them: Would that we had died 
in Egypt, or would we had died in the wilderness! Then Moses and 
Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation 
of the Children of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son 
of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their 
clothes; and they spake unto all the congregation of the Children of 
Israel, saying: The land which we passed through to survey it is an 
exceedingly good land. But all the congregation bade stone them with 
stones. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared in the Tent of Meeting 
unto all the Children of Israel. Then those men that did bring up an 
evil report of the land died by the plague before Yahweh; but Joshua 
the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive of those 
men that were sent to spy out the land.’ 

Now the people were dwelling in Kadesh; and Miriam died there 
and was buried there. And the people strove with Moses, and spake, 
saying: Wherefore have ye made us come up out of Egypt to bring 
us to this evil place? It is no place of seed or of figs, or of vines or of 
pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. And Yahweh spake 
unto Moses, saying: Take the rod, and thou shalt bring forth water 
for them out of the rock. And Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, 
as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly 
together before the rock, and Moses said unto them: Hear, now, ye 
rebels; are we to bring you water out of this rock? And he lifted up 
his hand and smote the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth 
abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. And Yahweh 
said unto Moses and unto Aaron: Because ye believed not in Me, to 
sanctify Me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore ye shall not 
bring this people into the land which I have given them. These are the 
waters of Meribah, where the Children of Israel strove with Yahweh, 
and He was sanctified in them. 

From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying: 
Thus saith thy brother Israel: Thou knowest all the travail that hath 
befallen us; how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we dwelt in 

1Chapters xv, xviii, xix, added by P, are entirely concerned with the duties, positions 


and emoluments of the priests and Levites. The rebellion of Korah also interwoven by P 
with that of Dathan and Abiram, told by J, in Ch. xvii, will be found in Part II. 


194 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us and our fathers. 
And when we cried unto Yahweh, He heard our voice, and sent a mes- 
senger and brought us out of Egypt. Now behold, we are in Kadesh, a 
city in the uttermost of thy border. Let us pass, I pray thee, through 
thy land; we will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, 
neither will we drink of the water of thy wells; we will not turn to the 
right hand nor to the left until we have passed thy border. And Edom 
said unto him: Thou shalt not pass through me, lest I come out against 
thee with the sword. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through 
his border. And they departed from Kadesh and pitched in Mount Hor, 
which is in the edge of the land of Edom. And Aaron died there in the 
top of the mount. 

Now the soul of the people was discouraged because of the way; and 
the people spake against God and against Moses: Wherefore have ye 
brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is neither 
bread nor water, and our soul doth loathe this good-for-nothing food. 
Then Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the 
people, so that many of the people of Israel died. And the people came 
to Moses, and said: We have sinned, because we have spoken against 
Yahweh and against thee; pray unto Yahweh, that He take away the 
serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And Yahweh said 
unto Moses: Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole. And it 
shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon 
it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a 
pole; and it came to pass that, if a serpent had bitten any man, when 
he looked upon the serpent of brass, he lived. 

Then they encamped in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward 
the sun-rising. Thence they journeyed and pitched in the valley of Zered. 
Thence they removed and encamped on the other side of Arnon, which is 
in the wilderness that cometh out of the border of the Amorites; for the 
Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Where- 
fore it is said in the “Book of the Wars of Yehweh” 


+ * * * se Through Vaheb to Suphneh, 
And the valleys of Arnon, and the slope of the valleys 
That inclineth tothe site of Ar, and lieth on the border of Moab. 


Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying: 
Let me pass through thy land. We will not turn into the fields or the 
vineyards, we will not drink of the water of the wells, but we will go 
along the king’s highway until we be past thy borders. But Sihon 
would not suffer Israel to pass through his border; and Sihon gathered 
all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness. 
And he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. And Israel smote him 
with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto 
Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon. Thus Israel dwelt in the land 
of the Amorites. 

Now Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the 
Amorites, and Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were 
so many. And he sent to Balaam, to Pethor which is on the river 
Euphrates, saying: [Come, curse me this people] for I know that he 
whom thou blessest is bessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed. And 
he said unto them: Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word 
again as Yahweh shall speak tome. And the princes of Moab abode with 
Balaam. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 195 


And God came unto Balaam, and said: What men are these with 
thee? And Balaam said unto God: Balak the son of Zippor, king of 
Moab, hath sent unto me. And God said unto Balaam: Thou shalt not 
go with them; thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed. 
And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said unto the princes of Balak: 
Get you into your land; for Yahweh refuseth to give me leave to go 
with you. And the princes of Moab rose up, and they went unto Balak, 
and said: Balaam refuseth to come with us. But Balak again sent 
princes, more and more honorable than they. And they came to Balaam, 
and said to him: Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor: Let nothing, I 
pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me. And Balaam said: Tarry 
ye also here this night, I pray you, that I may know what Yahweh will 
say unto me more. And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto 
him: Since the men have come to implore thee, rise up and go with 
them; but only the thing that I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do. 

So Balaam rose up in the morning and went with the princes of 
Moab. Then Balak said unto Balaam: Did I not urgently send unto 
thee to call thee? Wherefore camest thou not unto me? Am TI not 
able indeed to promote thee to honor? And Balaam said unto Balak: 
Lo, I am come unto thee. Have I now any power at all to say anything? 
The word that God shall put into my mouth, that shall I speak. And 
Balak offered oxen and sheep, and sent to Balaam and to the princes 
that were with him. 

And it came to pass in the morning, that Balak took Balaam and 
brought him to the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the 
utmost part of the people. And Balaam said unto Balak: Build me 
here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams. 
And Balak did as Balaam had commanded, and offered on each altar a 
bullock and a ram. And Balaam said unto Balak: Stand by thy burnt- 
offering and I will go; peradventure Yahweh will come to meet me; and 
whatever He sheweth me, I will tell thee. And he went to a high place. 

And God met Balaam; and he said unto Him: Tf have prepared seven 
altars, and I have offered upon each altar a bullock and a ram. And 
Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said: Return to Balak, and 
thus thou shalt speak. And he returned unto him, and lo! he stood 
by his offering, he and all the princes of Moab. And he took up his 
parable, and said: 


From Aram hath Balak, king of Moab brought me, 
rom the mountains of the East, 
Saying: Come, curse me Jacob, and come, execrate Israel! 
How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? 
And how shall I denounce whom God hath not denounced? 
For, from the top of the rocks can I see him, 
And from the heights I behold him. 
Lo, a people dwelling apart, 
Not counting itself among the nations!! 
Whol shall weigh the dust of Jacob, or number a fourth of Israel? 
Let me die the death of the righteous, 
And let my last end be like his! 


Then said Balak to Balaam: What hast thou done unto me? I took 
thee to curse mine enemies; and behold, thou hast blssed them ex- 
ceedingly. And he answered and said: Must I not speak what Yahweh 
putteth into my mouth? And Balak said unto him: Come, I pray thee, 
with me into another place, whence thou mayest see them; thou shalt 


196 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all, and do- 
nounce me them from thence. And he took him into the field of Zophim, 
to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a 
ram upon every altar. And he said unto Balak: Stand here by thy 
burnt-offering, while I meet Yahweh yonder. And Yahweh met Balaam, 
and put a word into his mouth, and said: Go again to Balak, and say 
thus. And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt-offering, 
and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him: What 
hath Yahweh spoken? 
And he took up his parable, and said: 


Rise up, Balak, and hear! Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor! 
God is not a man, that He should lie, 
Nor the son of man, that He should repent. 
Hath He not said, and shall He not do it? 
Or spoken, and will He not confirm it? 
Lo, I have received commandment to bless, 
He hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. 
He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, 
Nor hath He seen wrong-doing in Israel. 
Yahweh, his God, is with him, and rejoicing for kings is in Him. 


God is bringing him forth from Egypt, 
Strength as of a wild-ox is his. 
No sorcery will avail against Jacob, nor divination against Israel. 
In due time shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel: 
What hath God wrought! 
Behold, the people riseth up as a lion, 
As a lioness he raiseth himself up. 
He lieth not down till he eateth the prey, 
And drinketh the blood of the slain. 


And Balak said unto Balaam: Neither curse them at all, nor bless 
them at all. And Balaam answered and said unto Balak: Did I not 
speak unto thee, saying: All that Yahweh speaketh, that I must do? 
Then Balaam rose up and went, and returned to his place; and Balak also 
went his way. 

And Israel abode in Shittim; and Israel became devoted to the Baal 
of Peor. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel: Slay ye every one 
his men that have served the Baal of Peor. 

[Then Yahweh said unto Moses: Behold, the days draw near when 
thou must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of 
Meeting, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, 
and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting. And Yahweh ap- 
peared in the tent in a pillar of cloud; and the pillar of cloud stood over 
the door of the tent. And He gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, 
saying: Be strong and of a good courage; for thou shalt bring the 
Children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them; and I will 
be with thee. 

So Moses, the servant of Yahweh, died there in the land of Moab. And 
He buried him in the valley of the land of Moab, over against Baal- 
Peor; but no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day. Dz] 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 197 
V 
OF JOSHUA, LEADER OF THE TRIBES INTO CANAAN 


THE CROSSING OF THE JORDAN. THE CIRCUMCISION OF ALL THE HOST. THE 
TAKING OF JERICHO AND AI. JOSHUA’S ADDRESS TO ALL 
ISRAEL AND HIS DEATH. 


(Joshua, ii, 13a, b, 4a, 5a, c, 7,-9a, 12a, 13-14a, 20, 15c, 16, 22-24; 
Mivipesie.. 6; 14, 17; iv, 4-5, soap 8a, 20; V, 2-3, 93 Vi, 1-2a, 4-5b, 6, 9, 
12b- 13, 15- 16, ’20b, 22-23; viii, 8-13, 1 4b, 15a, 16b, Lae tS: 24-26, 
SOsLig es, 6-9a, 11- -15a, {6a, 22a, 24-278: xX, Ab- da, 9b-11, 15; XIV, 
1-30, 32-33.) 


Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out from Shittim secretly two men as 
spies, saying: Go, view the land and Jericho. And they went, and came 
into the house of a harlot, and lodged there. And the king of Jericho 
sent to Rahab, saying: Bring forth the two men that came to thy 
house. Now the woman had taken the two men and hidden them when 
it was dark, at the time of the shutting the gate. And she said thus: 
Pursue after them quickly, and ye will overtake them. And the men 
pursued after them on the road to Jordan unto the fords. And as soon 
as they that pursued had gone out, they shut the gates. But Rahab 
said unto the men: Swear that ye will save alive my father and my 
mother and my brethren and my sisters and all that they have, and 
deliver our lives from death. And the men said unto her: Our lives for 
yours, if ye do not betray our business here. But, if thou disclose this 
our business, then we shall be quit of this oath which thou hast made 
us swear. Then she let them down by a rope through the window; for 
her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And 
she said unto them: Get you to the mountains, lest the pursuers meet 
you, and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers be re- 
turned; and afterward ye may go your way. And they went and came 
unto the mountain and abode there three days, until the pursuers were 
returned; and the pursuers sought them on every road, but found them 
not. So the two men turned back and descended from the mountain, 
and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him 
all that had befallen them. And they said unto Joshua: Truly Yahweh 
hath delivered all the land into our hands. Then they removed from 
Shittim. 

Now at the end of three days, the officers went through the camp, 
and commanded the people, saying: When ye see the ark of Yahweh, 
your God, and the priests bearing it, then ye shall remove from your 
place and go after it. Also, take you twelve men from the tribes of 
Israel, out of every tribe a man. And Joshua spake unto the priests, 
saying: Take up the ark, and pass over before the people. And it 
came to pass when the people removed from their tents to pass over 
the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark before the people, that 
the priests that bare the ark of Yahweh stood firm on dry ground in 
the midst of the Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, 
until all the cattle had completed the crossing of the Jordan. 

Then Joshua called the twelve men of the Children of Israel whom 
he had appointed, out of every tribe a man; and Joshua said unto them: 
Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the 
Jordan, and let every man of you take up a stone upon his shoulder, 
according to the number of the twelve tribes of Israel; and these stones 


198 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


shall be for a memorial unto the Children of Israel for ever. And the 
Children of Israel did so, according as Joshua commanded. And these 
twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua set up in Gilgal. 

At that time Yahweh said unto Joshua: Make thee knives of flint, 
and circumcise the Children of Israel. Then Joshua made him knives 
of flint, and circumcised the Children of Israel at Gibeah Araloth (Hill 
of the Foreskins); and Yahweh said unto Joshua: To-day have I rolled 
away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of that 
place is called Gilgal (rolling) to this day. 

Now Jericho was fast closed and barred, because of the Children of 
Israel; none went out and none came in. And Yahweh said unto Joshua: 
Seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram’s horns, 
and ye shall compass the city seven times while the priests blow the 
trumpets; and it shall be that when they make a long blast with the 
ram’s horn, when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall 
shout a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down. Then 
Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them: Take 
up the ark, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram’s horns 
before the ark of Yahweh; and the seven priests bearing the seven 
trumpets of ram’s horns before Yahweh shall pass on while they blow 
the trumpets with the ark of Yahweh following them, and the armed. 
men going before the priests who blow the trumpets, and the rearguard 
following the ark of Yahweh, while they continually blow the trumpets. 
Then the priests took up the,ark of Yahweh, and the seven priests 
bearing the seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the ark of Yahweh 
continued to advance; and they blew the trumpets, and the armed men 
went before them, and the rearguard followed the ark of Yahweh, blow- 
ing the trumpets continually. And on the seventh time that the priests 
blew the trumpets, it came to pass, as the people heard the sound of 
the trumpet, then the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall 
fell down. 

Then Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land: Go 
into the house of the harlot, and bring out thence the woman and all 
that she hath, as ye sware unto her. And the young men, the spies, went 
in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her breth- 
ren and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred. But the 
city and all that was in it they burnt with fire. 

Then all the people drew near, and pitched on the north side of Ai; 
and there was a valley between them and Ai. And he [Joshua] took 
about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, 
on the east side of the city. And they stationed the people, all the host 
that was to the north of the city, and those lying in wait to the west of 
the city; but Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley. Then 
the men of the city rose up early and went out against Israel to battle; 
but Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten by them. So they 
pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. And there 
was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who went not out after Israel. Then 
Yahweh said unto Joshua: Stretch forth the spear in thy hand towards 
Ai, for I will give it into thy power. And Joshua stretched forth the 
spear that was in his hand toward the city. And as soon as he had 
stretched out his hand, they [the men in ambush] ran and entered the 
city and took it. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush 
had taken the city, they turned back and slew the men of Ai. And 
when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai, and 
they all, even to the last man, had fallen by the edge of the sword, 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 199 


then all the Israelites returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the 
sword. And all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve 
thousand, even all the men of Ai. For Joshua drew not back his hand 
wherewith he stretched out the spear, until all the inhabitants of Ai 
were utterly destroyed. Then Joshua burnt Ai and made it a heap 
forever, a desolation unto this day. 

Now when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done 
to Jericho and to Ai, they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and 
said to Joshua: We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them: 
Who are ye? and whence come ye? And they said unto him: From 
a very far country are thy servants come; and our elders and all the 
inhabitants of our country said unto us: Take provisions in your hand 
for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your 
servants. So Joshua made peace with them. But it came to pass at 
the end of three days, that they heard that they were their neighbors. 
Then Joshua summoned them and spake unto them, saying: Why have 
ye deceived us? And they answered Joshua and said: Behold, we are 
in thy hand; do unto us what seemeth good and right unto thee to do 
unto us. And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand 
of the Children of Israel that they slew them not. But Joshua made 
them hewers of wood and drawers of water. 

Now when the people of Jerusalem heard how the inhabitants of 
Gibeon had made peace with Israel, they feared greatly; because Gibeon 
was a great city like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater 
than Ai and all her men were warriors. So the king of Jerusalem sent 
to the kings of the Amorites, saying: Come up unto me and help me, 
that we may smite Gibeon; for it hath made peace with Joshua and with 
the Children of Israel. Then the five kings of the Amorites went up 
and made war against it. And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua, say- 
ing: Come up to us quickly and help us; for all the kings of the 
Amorites who dwell in the hill-country are gathered together against us. 
So he went up from Gilgal that night. And Yahweh discomfited them 
before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon; and they 
chased them by the way of Beth-horon. And as they fled from the face 
of Israel, while they were on the descent of Beth-horon, Yahweh cast 
down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died. 
They were more who died from the hailstones, than they whom the 
Children of Israel slew with the sword. And Joshua and all Israel with 
him returned unto Gilgal. 

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called 
for all the elders of Israel and for their chiefs and for their judges and 
for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. And 
Joshua said to all the people: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel. 
Your fathers dwelt of old beyond the River, and they served their gods. 
But I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him 
through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him 
Isaac. And I gave Isaac, Jacob and Esau; and I gave unto Esau mount 
Seir; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. Then I sent 
Moses and Aaron; and when [I had plagued Egypt according to what I did 
among them, afterward I brought you out. And ye came to the sea, 
and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with 
horsemen unto the Red Sea. And when they cried unto Yahweh, he put 
darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them 
and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And ye dwelt 
a long time in the wilderness. Then I brought you into the land of the 


200 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; but 
I gave them into your hand that ye might possess the land, and I de- 
stroyed them before you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, 
arose and fought against Israel; and he sent and called Balaam the son 
of Beor to curse you; but I would not hearken to Balam, and he blessed 
you instead. So I delivered you out of his power. Then ye came across 
the Jordan, even unto Jericho; and the men of Jericho fought against 
you, and I delivered them into your hand. And I sent before you the 
hornet, even the two kings of the Amorites, which drave them out 
before you. 

Now, therefore, fear Yahweh and serve Him in sincerity and truth; 
and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River 
[Euphrates] and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh. If, however, it seem evil 
to you to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves whom ye will serve— | 
whether the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, or the 
gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my 
house, we will serve Yahweh. 

And the people answered and said: God forbid that we should for- 
sake Yahweh to serve other gods. For Yahweh, our God, He it is that 
brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house 
of bondage, and which did great signs in our sight, and preserved us 
in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through 
which we passed. And Yahweh drove out before us all the people, even 
the Amorites which dwelt in the land. Therefore will we also serve 
Yahweh, for He is our God. 

And Joshua said unto the people: Ye cannot serve Yahweh, for He 
is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your trans- 
gressions nor your sins. If ye forsake Yahweh and serve strange gods, 
then He will turn and do you hurt and consume you, after that He 
hath done you good. But the people said unto Joshua: Nay, but we 
will serve Yahweh. 

Then Joshua said unto the people: Ye are witnesses against your- 
selves that ye have chosen for yourselves Yahweh, to serve Him. (And 
they said: We are witnesses.) Now therefore, put away the strange 
gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto Yahweh, the 
God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua: Yahweh our God will 
we serve, and His voice will we obey. Thus Joshua made a covenant 
with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in 
Shechem. 

Then Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and 
he took a great stone and set it up there under the oak that was by 
the sanctuary of Yahweh. And Joshua said unto all the people: Behold, 
this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard all the words 
of Yahweh which He hath spoken unto us; therefore it shall be a witness 
unto you, lest ye deny your God. Then Joshua sent away the people, 
each to his own possession. 

And after these things, Joshua the son of Nun died, being an hun- 
dred and ten years old. And they buried him in the land of his inheri- 
tance, in Timmath-serah which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side 
of the hill of Gaash. And the bones of Joseph, which the Children of 
Israel had brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem in the 
parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hazor, the father 
of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver; and they became the pos- 
session of the sons of Joseph. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 201 


they buried him in the hill of Phinehas, his son, which was given him 
in Mount Ephraim. 


VI 
OF DEBORAH, BARAK AND JAEL 


Deborah summons Barak from Naphtali to head an uprising of the cen- 
tral tribes against Jabin, King of Canaan. Sisera heads the Canaan- 
ite host against them. He is defeated at the River Kishon, and 
flees on foot and alone, and takes refuge in the tent of Heber the 
Kenite. Jael, the wife of Heber, slays Sisera, and delivers him 
to Barak. A preface to the tale giving the political situation is 
prefixed by D., a writer of the 7th Cent. (Judges, iv, 1-3, [the 
preface] iv, 4-23; by E. Verse 24, a comment by D..) 


(Preface by D. The Israelites offended Yahweh when Ehud was 
dead, and He sold them into the hand of Jabin, the King of Canaan 
who reigned in Hazor, the captain of whose host was Sisera, who dwelt 
in Harosheth of the Gentiles. And the Israelites cried unto Yahweh 
for help; for Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and for twenty 
years he mightily oppressed the Children of Israel. Now a prophetess, 
Deborah, wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time.) 

She sent and summoned Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kedesh 
in Naphtali, and said unto him: Hath not Yahweh, the God of Israel, 
commanded, saying: Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with 
thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and the children of 
Zebulon? And I will draw unto thee to the brook Kishon Sisera with 
his chariots and his multitudes, and I will deliver him into thy hand. 
And Barak said unto her: If thou wilt go with me, I will go; but if 
thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. And she said: I will 
surely go with thee; notwithstanding, the journey shall not be for thine 
honor, for Yahweh shall sell Sisera into the hands of a woman. And 
Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. 

Then Barak called Zebulon and Naphtali to Kedesh; and there went 
up with him ten thousand men, and Deborah went with him. 

Now Heber the Kenite had severed himself from the Kenites and 
pitched his tent as far away as the tree of Zaannaim which is near 
Kedesh. 

And they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up 
to Mount Tabor. And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even 
nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, 
from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the brook Kishon. And Deborah 
said unto Barak: Up, for this is the day in which Yahweh hath de- 
livered Sisera into thy hand. Is not Yahweh going before thee? So 
Barak went down from Mount Tabor and ten thousand men after him. 
And Yahweh discomfited Sisera* and all his chariots and all his host 
with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his 
chariot, and fled away on foot. 

But Barak pursued after the chariots and after the host unto 
Harosheth of the Gentiles; and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge 


1In the great Ode of Deborah given in J’s History, this discomfiture is attributed to a 
great hail-storm and rain that filled the brook Kishon to overflowing, 


202 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


of the sword; there was not a man left. Howbeit, Sisera fled away on 
foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite. 

And Jael went out to meet Sisera and said unto him: Turn in, 
my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in to her 
in the tent, she covered him with a rug. And he said unto her: Give 
me, I pray thee, a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. And she 
opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink, and covered him. Again 
he said unto her: Stand in the door of the tent; and it shall be when 
any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say: Is there any man 
here? that thou shalt say, No. Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a nail 
of the tent and a mallet in her hand, and went softly unto him, and 
smote the nail into his temples and fastened it into the ground; for 
he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. 

And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, 
and said unto him: Come in, and I will show thee the man whom thou 
seekest. And when he came in lo, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was 
in his temples. 

(Comment by D. Thus God on that day enabled the Israelites to 
subdue Jabin, the King of Canaan. And the power of the Israelites 
prevailed more and more until they had destroyed Jabin, King of 
Canaan.) 


VII 
OF GIDEON * 
(Judg. Oe 33, 36-40; ‘vil, 2-8, 16a, 17b-20; 24-25b;. villi, 1-3) 22-20, 
30-314. 


Preface by D:.—The Israelites again did evil in the sight of Yahweh, 
and Yahweh delivered them into the hands of Midian seven years. 
And because of the Midianites, the Israelites made themselves hid- 
ing-places in the mountains and caves and fastnesses. For, when 
Israel had sown, the Midianites and Amalekites and the eastern 
Bedouin would come up and encamp against them, and destroy the 
increase of the earth till thou comest to Gaza, and they left no 
sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ass. For they 
came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grass- 
hoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number. 


Now all Midian had gathered together and crossed the Jordan, and 
encamped in the plain of Jezreel. Then Gideon said unto God: If 
Thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as Thou hast spoken, behold, I will 
put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; if there be dew on the fleece 
only and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that Thou wilt 
save Israel by my hand as Thou hast spoken. And it was so; for he 
rose up early on the morrow and wrung out dew out of the fleece, a 
bowlful of water. And Gideon said unto God: Let not Thine anger be 
kindled against me; let me make trial, I pray Thee, with the fleece but 
this once more; let it be dry only upon the fleece, and upon the ground 
let there be dew. And God did so that night; for if was dry upon 
the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground... . . Then Yahweh 


1Called also Jerubbaal, who freed Israel from the annual raids of the Midianites 
(Bedouin). Possibly E here combines the exploits of two different men. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 203 


said to Gideon: The people who are with thee are too many for Me 
to give the Midianites into their hand; lest Israel vaunt itself against 
Me, saying: Mine own power hath saved me. Now, therefore, proclaim 
in the hearing of the people: Whosoever is afraid and timid, let him 
return and depart early from Mount Gilead. And there returned twenty 
and two thousand; but there remained ten thousand. And Yahweh said 
unto Gideon: There are yet too many; bring them down to the water, 
and I will try them for thee there; and it shall be that of whom T shall 
say unto thee; This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee. 
And of whomsoever I say unto thee: This shall not go with thee, the 
same shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water; and 
Yahweh said unto Gideon: Every man that lappeth of the water with 
his tongue as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise 
every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number 
of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hun- 
dred men; but all the rest bowed down upon their knees to drink water. 
And Yahweh said unto Gideon: By the three hundred men that lapped 
will I save you, and will deliver Midian into thy hand; let all the rest 
of the people go home. So they took victuals of the people in their 
hands, and their horns; and he sent all the men of Israel to their tents; 
and retained only the three hundred men. 

Then he divided his three hundred men into three companies, and 
furnished them all with horns. And he said: When I come to the 
outmost edge of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye do. 
When I blow the horn, I and all that are with me, then do ye also 
blow the horns on every side of the camp. Now Gideon and the hun- 
dred men with him reached the edge of the camp in the beginning of 
the middle watch, and they blew their horns; then the three com- 
panies blew their horns; and Yahweh set every man’s sword against 
his fellow, throughout all the host. And the men of all Manasseh were 
called out, and pursued Midian. Gideon also sent messengers through 
all the hill-country of Ephraim, saying: Come down to meet Midian 
and hold the streams against them as far as Beth-barah; so all the men 
of Ephraim were called out, and held the waters as far as Beth-barah. 
And they took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and slew Oreb 
at the Rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the wine-press of Zeeb. 
Then the Ephraimites said to Gideon: Why hast thou served us thus, 
that thou didst not call us when thou wentest to fight with Midian? 
And they did chide with him sharply. But he answered them: What 
have I now done? Is not the gleaning of Ephraim better than the 
vintage of Abi-ezer? God hath given into your hand the princes of 
Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What was I able to do in comparison with 
you? When he had said that, their anger was appeased. 

Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon: Rule thou over us, both 
thou and thy son, and thy son’s son; for thou hast saved us out of the 
hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them: I will not rule over 
you, neither shall my son rule over you; Yahweh shall rule over you. 
So Jerubbaal son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house.” 

1 [‘*‘Now Gideon had seventy sons, all begotten by him, for he had many wives. And his 


concubine also, who lived in Shechem, bore him a son whom he named Abimelech.’”? Added 
by P. The additions of pre-exilic editors are given with due notice in the text. ] 


204 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 
VIll 
OF ABIMELECH KING IN SHECHEM, AND JOTHAM HIS. BROTHER 
(Judg. ix, 1-24, 22c, 23, 25, 42-56a.) 


Abimelech ben Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s breth- 
ren and spake with them and with all the family of his mother’s father, 
saying: Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, say- 
ing: Which is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are 
threescore and ten persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you? 
Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. And his mother’s 
brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these 
words and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said: He 
is our brother. And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver 
out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired worthless 
fellows who followed him. And he went unto his father’s house at 
Ophrah, and slew his brethren, the sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore 
and ten persons, on one stone; but Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub- 
baal, was left; for he hid himself. And all the men of Shechem assem- 
bled themselves together, and all Beth-Millo, and went and made 
Abimelech king by the terebinth of the pillar that was in Shechem. 

And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top 
of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice and cried unto them: 

Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken to 
you! The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them. And 
they said to the olive tree: Reign thou over us! But the olive tree 
said unto them: Shall I leave my fatness seeing that through me gods 
and men are honored, and come to hold sway over the trees? And the 
trees said to the fig-tree: Come thou, and reign over us! But the 
fig-tree said unto them: Shall I leave my sweetness and my good 
fruitage, and go to reign over the trees? And the trees said unto the 
vine: Come thou, and reign over us! And the vine said unto them: 
Shall I leave my wine, which gladdens gods and men, and go to hold 
sway over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble: Come 
thou, and reign over us! And the bramble said unto the trees: If 
in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge under 
my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the 
cedars of Lebanon. 

Now therefore, if ye have dealt truly and uprightly in that ye have 
made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his 
house, and have done unto him according to his deserts—for my father 
fought for you and adventured his life, and delivered you out of the 
hand of Midian; and ye are risen up against my father’s house this day, 
and have slain his sons, threescore and ten men on one stone; and have 
made Abimelech, the son of his maid-servant, king over the men of 
Shechem because he is your kinsman—if ye then have dealt truly and 
uprightly with Jerubbaal and his house this day, then rejoice ye in 
Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come 
out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth-Millo; 
and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from Beth-Millo 
and consume Abimelech. And Jotham ran away and fled and went to 
Beer and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech, his brother. 

After Abimelech had ruled three years, God sent a spirit of discord 
between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem 
dealt treacherously with Abimelech. And the men of Shechem set 
liers-in-wait on the hilltops, and they robbed all that came along that 
way; and it was told Abimelech. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 205 


And on the following day, the people went out into the field, and 
it was told Abimelech. And he took the people and divided them into 
three companies and lay in wait in the field; and he looked and behold, 
the men were coming forth out of the city; and he rose against them 
and smote them. And Abimelech and the companies that were with 
him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, 
and the two other companies rushed upon all that were in the field 
and smote them. And Abimelech fought against the city all that day, 
and took the city and slew all the people that were therein; and he 
razed the city and sowed it with salt. 

And when the men of the tower of Shechem heard thereof, they 
went into the crypt of the temple of El-berith; and it was told Abimelech 
that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered there. And 
Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people that 
were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down 
a bough from the trees and took it up and laid it on his shoulder; 
and he said to the men who were with him: Make haste, and do what 
ye have seen me do. And all the people likewise cut down every man 
his bough, and followed Abimelech and put them to the crypt, and 
set fire to the crypt upon the men in it; so that all the men of the 
tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. 

Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez and 
took it. But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither 
fled all the men and women of the city and shut themselves in, and 
gat them up to the roof of the tower. And Abimelech came unto the 
tower and went close under the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 
And a certain woman cast an upper millstone upon Abimelech’s head, 
and broke his skull. Then he called hastily to his armor-bearer who 
attended him, and said unto him: Draw thy sword and kill me; that 
men may not say of me: A woman slew him. And his young man thrust 
him through, and he died. And when the men of Israel saw that 
Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his place. 

(Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech which he com- 
mitted against his father in slaying his seventy brethren; and all the 
wickedness of the men of Shechem did God requite upon their heads; 
and thus the curse of Jotham ben Jerubbaal came upon them all.)* 


IX 


OF JEPHTHAH THE GILEADITE WHO DELIVERED GILEAD FROM 
THE AMMONITES 


THOS Mv Okee a) eke done oUla. Xie 1-6, 
(Preface by D.—And the Israelites again offended Yahweh and served 
the Baalim and the Ashtoreth, and forsook Yahweh and did not 
serve Him. And Yahweh was incensed against Israel, and sold 
them into the power of the Philistines and into the power of the 
Ammonites. )? 


Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a great warrior, and he was the 
son of a harlot. And Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in 


1Comment of a pre-exilic editor; possibly also the interpolator of the prefaces 
to these tales of the ‘‘Judges’”’. } 

2The mention of the Philistines seems to indicate that E, too, recounted some exploits 
of Samson’s; but those that have been embodied in ‘Judges’ are by J, and belong to his 
“History’’. 


206 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


the land of Tob, and there gathered about him worthless fellows who 
went out with him. And it came to pass after a while that the 
Ammonites made war upon Israel. And the elders came to fetch 
Jephthah out of the land of Tob; and they said unto him: Come and be 
our chief, that we may fight against the Ammonites. And Jephthah 
said unto the elders of Gilead: Did not ye hate me, and drive me out 
of my father’s house? Why are ye come unto me now, when ye are 
in distress? And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah: Therefore 
are we now returned to thee, that thou mayest go with us and fight 
with the Ammonites; and thou shalt be our chief over all the inhabi- 
tants of Gilead. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead: If ye 
bring me back home to fight against the Ammonites, and Yahweh deliver 
them over to me, then I will be your chief. And the elders of Gilead 
said unto Jephthah: Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely, 
according to thy word, so will we do. Then Jephthah went with the 
elders of Gilead, and the people made him chief and commander over 
them; and Jephthah spake all his words before Yahweh at Mizpah. 

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto Yahweh, and said: If Thou wilt 
indeed deliver the Ammonites into my hand, then it shall be that 
whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when 
I return in peace from the Ammonites, it shall be Yahweh’s, and I will 
offer it up as a burnt-offering. Then Jephthah passed over to the 
Ammonites to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his 
hand. And he smote them from Aroer until thou come to Minneth, 
and even to Abel-cheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the 
Ammonites were subdued before the Children of Israel. 

And Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house; and behold, his daugh- 
ter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she 
was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. And 
it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes and cried: 
Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, thou art become 
my ruin; for I have vowed a vow unto Yahweh, and I cannot go back 
from it! And she said unto him: My father, thou hast vowed a vow 
unto Yahweh; do unto me according to that which thou hast vowed; 
forasmuch as Yahweh hath wrought vengeance for thee on thy foes, 
even on the children of Ammon. And she said unto her father: Let 
this thing be done for me; let me alone two months that I may depart 
and go to the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my companions. 
And he said: Go. And he sent her away for two months; and she 
went, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the 
mountains. And at the end of two months she returned to her father; 
and he did with her according to the vow which he had vowed; and 
she had not known man. Thus it became a custom in Israel that the 
daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah 
the Gileadite four days in a year. 

Now the men of Ephraim were gathered together and passed over 
to Zaphon. And they said to Jephthah: wherefore didst thou pass 
over to fight with the Ammonites and didst not summon us to go 
with thee? We will burn thy house over thee with fire. And Jephthah 
said unto them: I and my people were at great strife with the chil- 
dren of Ammon; and when I called you, ye saved me not out. of their 
hand. And when I saw that ye were not going to help me, I took my 
life in my hand and passed over against the Ammonites, and Yahweh 
delivered them into my hand. Wherefore, then, have ye come up unto 
me this day to fight against me? Then Jephthah gathered together 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 207 


all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead 
smote Ephraim, because they said: Ye are fugitives of Ephraim, ye 
Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim, and in the midst of Manasseh. 

And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraim- 
ites; and it was so, that when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said: 
Let me go over, the men of Gilead said unto them: Art thou an Ephraim- 
ite? If he said: Nay, then said they unto him: Say now Shibboleth; 
and he said: Sibboleth, for he could not pronounce it aright. Then 
they laid hold on him, and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. And 
there fell of Ephraim that time forty and two thousand. 


X 


OF ELI THE PRIEST AND THE CHILD SAMUEL 


Pegi ie. i 21rd, i, f-21s"iv, 1b, 2a, ‘c, 3b, 4a, ¢,\6a, Ta, 8; 
9b, c, 11-22.) 


Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-sophim, of the _ hill- 
country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the 
son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. And 
he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of 
the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no 
children. And this man went up out of his city from year to year to 
worship and to offer sacrifices unto Yahweh Sabaoath in Shiloh. (Now 
the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were priests there unto Yah- 
weh.) And when a day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave portions 
to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters: but to Hannah 
he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah. But Yahweh had shut 
up her womb; and her rival vexed her sore so as to make her fret, 
because Yahweh had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by 
year when she went up to the house of Yahweh, so she vexed her; 
therefore she wept and would not eat. And her husband Elkanah said 
unto her: Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? Am 
I not better unto thee than ten sons? 

Now Eli the priest sat upon.a seat by the door-post of the temple 
of Yahweh. And Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and 
after they had drunk, and she was in bitterness of soul. And she prayed 
unto Yahweh and wept sore; and she vowed a vow, and said: O Yahweh 
Sabaoth, if Thou wilt look upon the afflictions of Thine handmaid, and 
remember me and not forget Thine handmaid, but wilt give me a man- 
child, then I will give him unto Yahweh all the days of his life, and 
there shall no razor come upon his head. 

Now it came to pass, as she prayed long before Yahweh, that Eli 
watched her mouth. Now Hannah spake in her heart; only her lips 
moved, but her voice could not be heard; therefore Eli thought she had 
been drunken. And Eli said unto her: How long wilt thou be drunken? 
Put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said: Nay, 
my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine 
nor strong drink, but I was pouring out my soul before Yahweh. Count 
not thine handmaid for a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of 
my complaint and my vexation have I spoken hitherto. 

Then Eli answered and said: Go in peace; and may the God of Israel 


208 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


grant thy petition that thou hast asked of Him. And she said: Let 
thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way 
and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. And they rose up 
in the morning early and worshipped before Yahweh, and returned and 
came to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and 
Yahweh remembered her. And it came to pass when the time was come 
about, that Hannah conceived and bare a son; and she called his name 
Samuel: Because I have asked him of Yahweh. 

And the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer the yearly 
sacrifice to Yahweh and his vow; but Hannah went not up, for she said 
unto her husband: Not until the child be weaned; then I will bring 
him, that he may appear before Yahweh, and abide there for ever. And 
Elkanah her husband said unto her: Do what seemeth unto thee good; 
tarry until thou have weaned him; only may Yahwah establish His word. 
So the woman tarried and gave her son suck until she weaned him. And 
when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bul- 
locks and one ephah of meal and a bottle of wine, and brought him 
unto the house of Yahweh in Shiloh; and the child was young. And 
when the bullock was slain, they brought the child unto Eli. And she 
said: O my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that 
stood by thee here, praying unto Yahweh. For this child I prayed, and 
Yahweh hath granted my petition which I asked of Him; therefore I also 
have lent him to Yahweh; as Iong as he liveth he is lent to Yahweh. And 
he worshipped Yahweh there. ‘And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. 
And the child did minister unto Yahweh before Eli the priest. Now the 
sons of Eli were base men; they knew not Yahweh. And the custom of 
the priests with the people was that, when any man offered sacrifice, 
the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was seething, with a flesh-hook 
of three teeth in his hand and struck it into the pan or kettle or cauldron 
or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took. So they did 
unto all the Israelites that came thither in Shiloh. Yea, before they 
burnt the fat, the priest’s servant came and said to the man that sacri- 
ficed: Give flesh to roast for the priest; for I will not have sodden flesh 
of thee, but raw. And if the man said unto him: Let them not fail to 
burn the fat presently, and then take as thy soul desireth; then he would 
say: Nay, but thou shalt give it me now; and if not, I will take it by 
force. And the sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; 
for the men dealt contemptuously with the offering of Yahweh. 

But Samuel ministered before Yahweh, being a child girded with a 
linen ephod. Moreover his mother made him a little robe and brought 
it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer 
the yearly sacrifice. And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say: 
May Yahweh give thee seed of this woman for the loan which was lent 
to Yahweh. And they would go to their own house. So Yahweh re- 
membered Hannah, and she conceived and bare three sons and two 
daughters. And the child Samuel grew before Yahweh. 

Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did unto all 
Israel, and how they lay with the women that did service at the door of 
the Tent of Meeting. And he said unto them: Why do ye such things? 
for I hear evil reports concerning you from all this people. Nay, my 
sons; for it is no good report which I hear the people of Yahweh do 
spread abroad. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge 
him; but if a man sin against Yahweh, who shall entreat for him? But 


1The “Prayer of Hannah” (ch. ii, 1-10) is a late triumphal ode, recording the success 
of a king. See verses 4 and 10b. j 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 209 


they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because Yahweh would 
slay them. And the child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both 
with Yahweh and with men. 

And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him: Thus 
saith Yahweh, Did I reveal Myself unto the house of thy father when 
they were in bondage in Egypt to Pharaoh’s house? And did I choose 
him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to go up unto Mine 
altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before Me? And did I give 
unto the house of thy father all the offerings of the Children of Israel 
made by fire? Wherefore kick ye at My sacrifice and at Mine offering, 
which I have commanded in My habitation, and honored thy sons above 
Me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel 
My people? Therefore said Yahweh, the God of Israel: I said indeed 
that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before Me for 
ever; but now saith Yahweh: Be it far from Me; for them that honor 
Me I will honor, and they that despite Me shall be lightly esteemed. Be- 
hold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy 
father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. And 
thou shalt behold a rival in My habitation in all the good that shall be 
done to Israel; and there shall not be an old man in thy house for ever. 
Yet will I not cut off every man of thine from Mine altar, to make thine 
eyes to fail and thy heart to languish; but all the increase of thine 
house shall die young men. And this shall be the sign unto thee,—that 
which shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one 
day they shall die, both of them. And I will raise Me up a faithful 
priest, that shall do according to that which is in My heart and in My 
mind; and I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before Mine 
anointed for ever. And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left 
in thine house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver 
and a loaf of bread, and shall say: Put me, I pray thee, into one of the 
priests’ offices, that I may seat a morsel of bread. 

And the child Samuel ministered to Yahweh before Eli. And the 
word of Yahweh was precious in those days; there was no frequent 
vision. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was lain down in 
his place,—now his eyes had begun to wax dim that he could not see,— 
and ere the lamp of Yahweh was gone out, and Samuel had lain down 
in the temple of Yahweh, where the ark of God was, that Yahweh called, 
Samuel! and he said: Here am I. And he ran to Eli, and said: Here 
am I, for thou calledst me. And he said: I called not; lie down again. 
And he went and lay down. And Yahweh called yet again: Samuel! 
And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said: Here am J; for thou didst 
call me. And he answered: I called not, my son; lie down again. Now 
Samuel did not yet know Yahweh, neither was the word of Yahweh yet 
revealed unto him. And Yahweh called Samuel the third time. And he 
arose and went to Eli, and said: Here am I; for thou didst call me. 
And Eli perceived that Yahweh was calling the child. Therefore Eli said 
unto Samuel: Go, lie down; and it shall be, if thou be called, that 
thou shalt say: Speak, Yahweh! for Thy servant heareth. So Samuel 
went and lay down in his place. And Yahweh came, and stood, and called 
as at other times: Samuel! Samuel! Then Samuel said: Speak, for 
Thy servant heareth. And Yahweh said to Samuel: Behold, I will do 
a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it 
shall tingle. In that day, I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken 
concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end. For I have 
told him that I will judge his house for ever for his iniquity, in that 


210 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


he knew that his sons did bring a curse upon themselves, and he rebuked 
them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the 
iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated with sacrifice nor offering 
forever. 

And Samuel lay till the morning, and opened the doors of the house 
of Yahweh. And Samuel feared to tell Eli the vision. Then Eli called 
Samuel, and said: Samuel, my son! And he said: Here am I. And he 
said: What is the thing that He hath spoken unto thee? I pray thee, 
hide it not from me. God do so: to thee and more also, if thou hide any 
thing from me of all the things that He spake unto thee. And Samuel 
told him all the words, and hid nothing from him. And he said: It is 
Yahweh; let Him do what seemeth Him good. 

And Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him, and did let none of his 
words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan unto Beersheba knew 
that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yahweh. And Yahweh 
appeared again in Shiloh; for Yahweh revealed Himself to Samuel in 
Shiloh by the word of Yahweh. 

Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched 
beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines pitched in Aphek; and when the 
battle was joined Israel was smitten before the Philistines. Then the 
elders of Israel said: Wherefore hath Yahweh smitten us to-day before 
the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of our God out of Shiloh, that He 
may come among us and save us from the hand of our enemies. 

Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the 
ark of God. And when the ark of God came into the camp, all Israel 
shouted with a great shout. And when the Philistines heard the noise 
of the shout, they said: What is this noise of great shouting in the 
camp of the Hebrews? And the Philistines were afraid; for they said: 
God is come into their camp. Woe unto us! Who shall deliver us out 
of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that smote 
the Egyptians with all manner of plagues and pestilence. Quit your- 
selves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not slaves unto the Hebrews, 
as they have been slaves to you. And Israel was smitten, and fled every 
man to his tent. And there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. 
And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and 
Phineas, were slain. 

And a Benjamite ran out of the army and came to Shiloh the same 
day with his clothes rent and with earth on his head. And as he came, 
lo, Eli was sitting on his seat by the gate, watching; for his heart trem- 
bled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told 
it, all the city cried out. And when Eli heard the noise of the erying, 
he said: What is this noise of tumult? And the man made haste and 
told Eli. And the man said unto Eli: I am he that came out of the 
army, and I fled to-day out of the army. And he said: How went the 
matter, my son? And he that brought the tidings answered and said: 
Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great 
slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, 
are dead, and the ark of God is taken. And it came to pass, when he 
made mention of the ark of God, that Eli fell from off his seat backward 
by the side of the gate, and his neck brake and he died; for he was an 
old man and heavy. 

And his daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was with child, about to 
be delivered; and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was 
taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed 
herself and brought forth; for her pains came suddenly upon her. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 211 


And about the time of her death the women who stood by her said unto 
her: Fear not, for thou hast brought forth a son. But she answered 
not, neither did she regard it. But she named the child Ichabod [dis- 
honored|. And she said: The glory hath departed from Israel, for the 
ark of God is taken. And the Philistines took the ark of God, and 
brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 


XI 
OF SAMUEL THE SEER 


Samuel urges the people to put away foreign gods. They obey, and 
gather for a fast at Mizpah. ‘The Philistines attack them, but are 
pursued and smitten. Samuel is judge of a small circuit. The peo- 
ple demand a king; Samuel details the evils of monarchy, but finally 
yields and anoints Saul, a Benjamite, king. Saul’s son, Jonathan, 
routs a garrison of the Philistines. Saul rashly assumes the office 
of priest and is rejected by Yahweh. Samuel is sent by Yahweh 
to anoint David of Bethlehem as Saul’s successor. Samuel dies. 
eoallieevilmecUsEVill weogiss! 1 ieci skill, 3-0, 47D-153 xv, 24-317 exvij 
dA S2exKV;01 8.) 


And all the house of Israel yearned after Yahweh. And Samuel spake 
unto all the house of Israel, saying: If ye do return unto Yahweh with 
all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreth from 
among you, and direct your hearts unto Yahweh and serve Him only, and 
He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the Chil- 
dren of Israel did put away the Baalim and the Ashtoreth and served 
Yahweh only. 

And Samuel said: Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for 
you unto Yahweh. And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew 
water and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and 
said there: We have sinned against Yahweh. And Samuel judged the 
Children of Israel in Mizpah. 

And when the Philistines heard that the Children of Israel were 
gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against 
Israel. And when the Children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of 
the Philistines. And they said unto Samuel: Cease not to cry unto 
Yahweh our God for us, that He may save us out of the hand of the 
Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a 
whole burnt-offering unto Yahweh; and Samuel cried unto Yahweh for 
Israel, and Yahweh answered him. And as Samuel was offering up the 
burnt-offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel; but 
Yahweh thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philis- 
tines and discomfited them; and they were smitten down before Israel. 
And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines; 
and they smote them until they came under Beth-car. 

Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Miszpah and Shen, and 
called the name of it Ebenezer (Stone of help), saying: Hitherto hath 
Yahweh helped us.’ 

So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more within the 

1The hand of the Deuteronomist Redactor, (D,), is very evident in this part of 
Samuel’s history; but the touch of the marvellous in the battle with the Philistines, and 


the intimate details are akin to those of the traditions preferred by E. The account of 
the rise of the monarchy is largely added to by DR (Ch. viii, 8-20). 


212 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


border of Israel; and the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines 
all the days of Samuel. And there was peace between Israel and the 
Amorites. And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he 
went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and 
judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah, for 
there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and he built there an 
altar unto Yahweh. 

Now it came to pass when Samuel was old, that he made his sons 
judges over Israel. Now the name of his first-born was Joel, and the 
name of the second, Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba. And his 
sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre and took bribes, 
and perverted justice. 

Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came 
to Samuel at Ramah. And they said unto him: Behold, thou art old, 
and thy sons walk not in thy ways; now make us a king to judge us like 
all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said: Give 
us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto Yahweh. And Yahweh 
said unto Samuel: Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that 
they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have 
rejected Me, that I should not be king over them. Now therefore hearken 
unto their voices; howbeit thou shalt earnestly forwarn them, and shalt 
declare unto them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. 
And Samuel told all the words. of Yahweh unto the people that asked 
of him a king, and he said: 

This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: he 
will take your sons and appoint them for himself over his chariots and 
to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots. And he will 
appoint them to be captains of thousands and captains of fifties, and to 
plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments 
of war and the instruments of his chariots. And he will take your 
daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks and to be bakers. And he 
will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive-yards, even the. 
best of them and give them unto his servants. And he will take the 
tenth of your produce and of your vineyards, and give to his officers 
and to his servants. And he will take your men-servants and your 
maid-servants and your goodliest young men and your asses, and put 
them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks; and ye shall be 
his servants. And in that day ye shall cry out because of your king 
whom ye shall have chosen you; and Yahweh will not answer you in 
that day. 

But the people refused to hearken unto the voice of Samuel; and 
they said: Nay, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be 
like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before 
us and fight our battles. And Samuel heard all the words of the people, 
and he spake them in the ears of Yahweh. And Yahweh said to Samuel: 
Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said 
unto the men of Israel: Go ye every man into his own city. 

Then Samuel called the people together unto Yahweh to Mizpah. 
And he said to the Children of Israel: Thus saith Yahweh: I brought 
up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyp- 
tians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that have oppressed you. 
But ye have this day rejected your God, who Himself saveth you out of 
all your calamities and your distresses. And ye have said unto Him: 
Nay, but set a king over us. Now therefore, present yourselves before 
Yahweh by your tribes and by your thousands. So Samuel brought all 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 213 


the tribes of Israel near; and the tribe of Benjamin was taken. And 
he brought the tribe of Benjamin near by their families, and the 
family of Matri was taken; and Saul the son of Kish was taken; but 
when they sought him, he could not be found. And they inquired of 
Yahweh further, if the man should yet come hither. And Yahweh an- 
swered: Behold, he hath hidden himself among the stuff. And they 
ran and fetched him thence; and when he stood among the people, he 
was higher than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And 
Samuel said to all the people: See ye him whom Yahweh hath chosen; 
and all the people shouted, and cried: Long live the king! 

Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote 
it in a book, and laid it up before Yahweh. And Samuel sent all the 
people away, every man to his own home. 

Then Saul went to his house in Gibeah; and there went with him 
the men of valor whose hearts God had touched. But certain base fel- 
lows said: How shall this man save us? and they despised him, and 
brought him no present. But Saul held his peace. Then Jonathan, 
Saul’s son, smote the garrison of the Philistines which was in Geba; and 
the Philistines heard of if. And Saul blew the horn throughout all the 
land, saying: Let the Israelites hear. And ali Israel heard it said that 
saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel also 
had made itself odious to the Philistines. And the people gathered them- 
selves together unto Saul in Gilgal. And the Philistines assembled 
themselves together to fight with Israel thirty thousand chariots and 
six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea- 
shore in multitude; and they came up and pitched in Michmash, east- 
ward of Bethaven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in a 
strait,—for the people were distressed—then the people did hide them- 
selves in caves and in thickets, and among rocks and holds and in pits. 
But as for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal. 

And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel 
had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were 
scattering from him. And Saul said: Bring hither to me the burnt- 
offerings and the peace-offerings. And he offered the burnt-offering. 
And it came to pass that, as soon as he had made an end of offering the 
burnt-offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that 
he might salute him. And Samuel said: What hast thou done? And 
Saul said: I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that 
thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines 
were assembling themselves together against Michmash; therefore said 
I, now will the Philistines come down upon us in Gilgal, and I have not 
entreated the favor of Yahweh. I forced myself therefore, and offered 
the burnt-offering. 

And Samuel said unto Saul: Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not 
kept the commandment of Yahweh thy God, which He commanded thee. 
For now would Yahweh have established thy kingdom for ever. But 
now thy kingdom shall not continue; Yahweh hath sought Him a man 
after His own heart, and hath appointed him to be a prince over His 
people, because thou hast not kept that which Yahweh commanded thee. 

And Saul said unto Samuel: I have sinned; for I have transgressed 
the commands of Yahweh, and thy words, because I feared the people 
and hearkened to their voice. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my 
sin and return with me, that I may worship Yahweh. And Samuel said 
unto him: I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word 
of Yahweh, and Yahweh hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. 


2414 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And as Samuel turned about to go away, he [Saul] laid hold of the skirt 
of his robe and it rent. And Samuel said unto him: Yahweh hath rent 
the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a 
neighbor of thine who is better than thou. And also, the Glory of Israel 
will not lie nor repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent. 
Then he said: I have sinned; yet honor me now, I pray thee, before 
the elders of the people and before Israel; and return with me, that 
I may worship Yahweh thy God. So Samuel turned back with Saul; 
and Saul worshipped Yahweh. 

Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house, to 
Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel never beheld Saul again until the day of 
his death. For Samuel mourned for Saul; and Yahweh repented that He 
had made him king over Israel. 

And Yahweh said unto Samuel: How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, ~ 
seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill thy horn 
with oil and go; I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have 
provided Me a king among his sons. And Samuel said: How can I go? 
If Saul hear it, he will kill me. And Yahweh said: Take a heifer with 
thee and say: I am come to sacrifice unto Yahweh. And call Jesse to 
the sacrifice, and I will tell thee what thou shalt do; and thou shalt 
anoint unto Me him whom I name unto thee. 

And Samuel did that which Yahweh spake, and came to Bethlehem. 
And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said: 
Comest thou peaceably? and he said: Peaceably. I am come to sacrifice 
unto Yahweh; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. 
And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice. 

And it came to pass when they were come, that he beheld Eliab, 
and said: Surely the anointed of Yahweh is before Him. But Yahweh 
said unto Samuel: Look not on his countenance or on the height of 
his stature, because I have rejected him; for it is not as man seeth, for 
man looketh on the outward appearance; but Yahweh looketh on the 
heart. Then Jesse called Aminadab, and made him pass before Samuel; 
and he said: Neither hath Yahweh chosen this. Then Jesse made 
Shemmiah pass by; and he said: Neither hath Yahweh chosen this. 
And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. 

And Samuel said unto him: Are here all thy children? And he said: 
There remaineth yet the youngest; and behold, he keepeth the sheep. 
And Samuel said unto Jesse: Send and fetch him; for we will not sit 
down till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in. Now he 
was ruddy, and withal of beautiful eyes and goodly to look upon. And 
Yahweh said: Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the 
horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the 
spirit of Yahweh came mightily upon David from that day forward. So 
Samuel rose up and returned to Ramah. 

And Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together and 
lamented him. And they buried him in his house at Ramah. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 215 
XII 
OF SAUL, KING OF BENJAMIN 


Saul’s success in war throughout the Jordan valley. The Philistines 
renew their attacks. Their champion, Goliath, challenges the 
Israelites to furnish a champion to settle their disputes by single 
combat. David son of Jesse comes to the camp to visit his brothers. 
He offers himself as the champion of Israel. Slays Goliath. Abner, 
Saul’s general, brings him to Saul. The praise of David’s prowess 
above his own rouses Saul’s jealousy. (4 Sam’l, xiv, 47-52; xvii, 
1-56; xviii, 6-9.) 


Saul took the kingship over Israel,* and fought against all his ene- 
mies on every side; against Moab and against the children of Ammon, 
against Edom and against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philis- 
tines; and whithersoever he turned, he put them to the worse. And he 
did valiantly, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of 
the hands of him that spoiled them. 

Now the names of the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishui, and Mal- 
chishua; and the names of his daughters were these: the name of the 
first-born, Merab; and the name of the younger, Michal. And the name 
of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name 
of the captain of his army was Abner, the son of Ner, Saul’s uncle. And 
Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner, the father of Abner, was the son 
of Abiel. 

And there was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul; 
and when Saul saw any powerful man, or a valiant man, he took him 
unto him. 

Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and 
they were assembled at Socoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched 
between Socoh and Abekah, in Ephes-dammim. And Saul and the men 
of Israel were gathered together, and pitched near the valley of Elah, 
and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines 
stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on 
the other side; and a valley was between them. 

And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines 
named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And 
he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat 
of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. 
And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between 
his shoulders. And the staff was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s 
head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and one bearing a shield 
went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, 
and said unto them: Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? 
Am not I a Philistine, and ye, servants of Saul? Choose you a man for 
you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me and 
to kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him 
and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the 
Philistine said: I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, 
that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those 
words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. 

Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah, 

1Saul the Benjamite was king only of the Benjamites, though the other tribes, men 
of Judah and of Ephraim, nearest to him and to the Philistines, looked to him as their 


champion, and fought with him. The kingdom of Israel, promised by Samuel, he forfeited 


by disobedience; either by assuming the priestly office, as given by E, or by not annihilating 
the Amalekites, as given by J 


216 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


whose name was Jesse and who had eight sons; and the man went 
among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And the three eldest 
sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle; and the names of the 
three sons that went to the battle were: Eliab, the firstborn, and next 
him Ahinadab, and the third, Shammah. And David was the youngest; 
and the three eldest followed Saul. 

And the Philistine drew near morning and evening and presented 
himself forty days. 

And Jesse said unto David his son: Take now for thy brethren an 
ephah of this parched corn and these ten loaves, and run to the camp 
to thy brethren, and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their 
thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge. Now 
Saul, and they and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, 
fighting with the Philistines. 

And David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with a 
keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came 
to the trench as the army was going forth to the fight and shouting for 
the battle. For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, 
army against army. And David left his baggage in the hand of the 
keeper of the baggage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted 
his brethren. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the 
champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of 
the Philistines, and spake according to the same words; and David heard 
them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from 
him and were sore afraid. 

And the men of Israel said: Have ye seen this man that is come up? 
surely to defy Israel is he come up; and it shall be that the man whe 
killeth him, the king will enrich with great riches, and will give him 
his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel. And David 
spake to the men that stood by him, saying: What shall be done to the 
man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from 
Israel? For, who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy 
the armies of the living God? And the people answered him after this 
manner, saying: So shall it be done to the man that killeth him. 

But Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men, 
and his anger was kindled against David, and he said: Why camest 
thou down hither, and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in 
the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thy heart; 
for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. 

And David said: What have I done now? Is there not a cause? 
And he turned from him to another, and spake after the same manner; 
and the people answered him again after the former manner. 

And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed 
them before Saul; and he was taken to him. And David said to Saul: 
Let no man’s heart fail within him; thy servant will go and fight with 
this Philistine. And Saul said to David: Thou are not able to go 
against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and 
he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul: Thy 
servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and 
took a lamb out of the flock; and I went out after him and smote him, 
and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I 
caught him by the beard and slew him. Thy servant slew both the 
lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of 
them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said 
moreover, Yahweh, who delivered me out of the paw of the bear, He will 
deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 217 


And SawW said unto David: Go, and may Yahweh be with thee. 

And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put a helmet of 
brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail. And 
David girded his sword upon his armor, and he essayed to go; for he 
had not proved it. And David said unto Saul: I cannot go with 
these, for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. 
And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones 
from the brook and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even 
in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the 
Philistine. 

And the Philistine drew nearer and nearer unto David, and the man 
that bare the shield before him. And when the Philistine looked about 
and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth and ruddy, 
and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said: Am I a dog, that 
thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by 
his gods. And the Philistine said to David: Come to me, and I will give 
thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Then 
said David to the Philistine: Thou comest to me with a sword and 
with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of 
Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. 
This day will Yahweh deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee, 
and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the 
host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild 
beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God 
in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that Yahweh saveth not 
with sword and spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and He will give you 
into our hands. 

And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew 
nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to 
meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took thence 
a stone and slung it, and smote the Philistine in the forehead, so that 
the stone sank into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. 
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, 
and smote the Philistine and slew him; but there was no sword in the 
hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine, 
and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, 
and cut off his head therewith. 

Now when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they 
fled. And the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted, and pursued 
the Philistines until thou come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron. 
And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, 
even unto Gath and to Ekron. And the Children of Israel returned from 
chasing after the Philistines, and they destroyed their tents. And David 
took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to But he put 
his armor in his tent. 

And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said 
unto Abner, the captain of the host: Abner, whose son is this youth? 
And Abner said: As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the 
king said: Inquire thou, whose son the stripling is. And as David 
returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and 
brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 
And Saul said unto him: Whose son art thou, young man? And David 
answered: I am the son of thy servant, Jesse the Bethlehemite. 

Now it came to pass as they came when David was returning from 
the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all the 
cities of Israel to meet king Saul with tabrets, with joy, and with instru- 





218 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


ments of music. And the women answered one another as they played, 
and said: 

Saul hath slain his thousands 

And David his ten thousands. 


And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said: 
They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have 
ascribed but thousands; and what can he have more but the kingdom? 
And Saul eyed David from that day and forward. 


iT 
OF JONATHAN AND DAVID 


Jonathan’s love for David. Saul’s hatred of David. Jonathan pleads for 
him. He plans for David’s escape. Saul’s anger against Jonathan. 
David, aided by Jonathan, escapes into a stronghold in the moun- 
aa Their parting.’ (ivsSam'],oxvinl, 454° xie i 7 ex 
14-19, 


And it came to pass when he [David] had made an end of speaking 
unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, 
and Jonathan loved him as he loved his own soul. And Saul took him 
that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. 
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as 
his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was 
upon him and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword and 
his bow, and to his girdle. 

And Saul spake to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they 
should slay David. And Jonathan told David, saying: Saul my father 
seeketh to slay thee; now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself 
in the morning, and abide in a secret place and hide thyself; and I will 
go out and stand beside my father in the field, and I will speak with my 
father of thee; and if I see aught, I will tell thee. 

And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said 
unto him: Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; for 
he hath not sinned against thee, and his work has been very good 
towards thee; for he put his life in his hand and smote the Philistine, 
and Yahweh wrought a very great victory for Israel. Thou sawest it 
and didst rejoice. Wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent 
blood, to slay David without a cause? And Saul hearkened unto the 
voice of Jonathan, and Saul sware: As Yahweh liveth, he shall not 
be put to death. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in 
his presence as aforetime. 

And there was war again; and David went out and fought with the 
Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter, and they fled before 
him. And an evil spirit from Yahweh was upon Saul as he sat in his 
house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his 
hand upon the harp. And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall 
with the spear; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he 
smote the spear into the wall; and David fled, and escaped that night. 

And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said unto 
Jonathan: What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my 
sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? And he said unto him: 
Far from it; thou shalt not die; behold, my father doeth nothing either 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 219 


great or small, but that he will shew it unto me; and why should my 
father hide this thing from me? it is not so. But David sware and 
said: Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found favor in thine 
eyes: and he saith; Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved; 
but truly, as Yahweh liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step 
between me and death. 

Then said Jonathan unto David: Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I 
will even do it for thee. And David said unto Jonathan: Behold, to- 
morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at 
meat; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third 
day at even. If thy father at all miss me, then say: David asked 
leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem, his city; for there is a 
yearly sacrifice for all his family. If he say thus: It is well; thy servant 
shall have peace; but if he be very wroth, be sure that evil is determined 
by him. Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant; for thou 
hast brought thy servant into a covenant of Yahweh with thee. Not- 
withstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself; for why 
shouldest thou bring me to thy father? 

And Jonathan said: Far be it from thee; for if I knew certainly 
that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would 
not I tell thee? Then said David to Jonathan: Who shall tell me? 
what if thy father answer thee roughly? And Jonathan said unto David: 
Come and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them 
into the field. And Jonathan said unto David: By Yahweh, God of 
Israel, when I have sounded my father, any time to-morrow or the 
third day, and behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not 
word unto thee, and shew it thee; Yahweh do so and more also to 
Jonathan; but if it please my father to do thee evil, then I will shew 
it thee and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace, and Yahweh 
be with thee, as he hath been with my father. And thou shalt shew 
me the kindness of Yahweh not only while yet I live, that I die not, 
but thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever; no, 
not when Yahweh hath cut off the enemies of David every one from 
the face of the earth. And Jonathan caused David to swear again 
for the love he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 

And Jonathan said unto him: ‘To-morrow is the new moon, and thou 
wilt be missed because thy seat will be empty. And in the third day 
thou shalt go quickly, and come down to the place where thou didst hide 
thyself in the day of work, and shalt remain by the stone Ezel. And I 
will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a mark. And 
behold, I will send the lad: Go, find the arrows. If I say to the lad: 
Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee; take them and come, for 
there is peace, and no hurt for thee. But if I say thus unto the boy: 
Behold, the arrows are beyond thee;—go thy way, for Yahweh hath 
sent thee away. And, as touching the matter which I and thou have 
spoken of, behold, Yahweh be between thee and me for ever. 

So David hid himself in the field. And when the new moon was 
come, the king sat him down to eat meat. And the king sat as at other 
times on a seat by the wall; and Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat by 
Saul’s side; but David’s place was empty. Nevertheless Saul spake not 
any thing that day; for he thought: Something hath befallen him, he 
is not clean; surely he is not clean. And it came to pass, on the morrow 
after the new moon, the second of the month, that David’s place was 
empty; and Saul said unto his son: Wherefore cometh not the son of 
Jesse to meat, neither yesterday nor to-day? And Jonathan answered 


220 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Saul: David earnestly. asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem; and he 
said: Let me go, I pray thee, for our family hath a sacrifice in the 
city; and my brother, he hath summoned me; and now, if I have found 
favor in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. 
Therefore he is not come to the king’s table. 

Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto 
him: Thou son of perverse rebellion, do not I know that thou hast 
chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the shame of 
thy mother’s nakedness? For so long as the son of Jesse liveth upon 
the earth, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore 
row, send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die. And Jona- 
than answered Saul his father: Wherefore should he be put to death? 
what hath he done? And Saul cast his spear at him to smite him; 
whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay 
David. So Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger, and did eat no 
meat the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, and 
because his father had put him to shame. 

And it came to pass in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the 
field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad with him. And 
he said to the lad: Run, find now the arrows which I shoot. And as the 
lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. And when the lad was come 
to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried 
after the lad, and said: Is not the arrow beyond thee? And Jonathan 
cried after the lad: Make speed, haste, stay not. And Jonathan’s lad 
gathered up the arrows and came to his master. But the lad knew not 
anything; only Jonathan and David knew the matter. And Jonathan gave 
his weapons unto his lad and said to him: Go, carry them to the eity, 
And as soon as the lad was gone, David came out of a place toward the 
south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times; 
and they kissed one another, and wept one with the other until David 
exceeded. And Jonathan said to David: Go in peace, forasmuch as 
we have sworn both of us in the name of Yahweh, saying: Yahweh 
shall be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for 
ever. And he arose and departed; and Jonathan went into the city. 
And David abode in strongholds, and remained in a mountain in the 
wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered 
him not into his hand. And Jonathan arose and went to David in the 
wood, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said: Fear not, for 
the hand of my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over 
Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that my father knoweth. 
And David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his own house.* 

1 There is no evidence that they ever met again; but David wrote the beautiful elegy 


upon the death of Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, and fulfilled his promise by caring 
for Jonathan’s afflicted son, Mephibosheth, till the day of his death. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES rae | 
XIV 
OF DAVID THE OUTLAW 


Saul pursues David who narrowly escapes. David spares Saul’s life and 
they swear a truce. David's adventures in Carmel. Marries Abigail, 
and Ahinoam of Jezreel. Saul gives Michal, David’s wife, to another 
man. David seeks refuge among the Philistines, but deceives them, 
fighting against their allies and sending the spoil to his friends in 
Judah. He shows himself both just and generous to his own people. 
Pie alt eee hi deo ex yer Or eX Vieed-a es EXN VIL, 14-12> xxvill, 4° 
Sex il xxx -3f,) ; 


Now the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying: Doth not 
David hide himself with us in the strongholds of the wood in the hill 
of Hachilah,. which is on the south of Jeshimon? Now therefore, O 
King, come down according to all the desire of thy soul; come down, 
and our part shall be to deliver him up into the king’s hand. And Saul 
said: Blessed be ye of Yahweh, for ye have had compassion on me. 
Go, I pray you, make yet more sure, and know and see the place where 
his haunt is, and who hath seen him there; for it is told me that he 
dealeth very subtly. See therefore, and take knowledge of all the 
lurking-places where he hideth himself, and come ye back to me with 
the certainty, and I will go with you; and if he be in the land, I will 
- search him out among all the thousands of Judah. And they arose and 
went to Ziph ahead of Saul. But David and his men were in the 
wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. 

And Saul and his men went to seek him. And they told David; 
wherefore he came down to the rock, and abode in the wilderness of 
Maon. And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his 
men on that side of the mountain; and David made haste to get away, 
for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men 
round about, to take them. But there came a messenger to Saul, saying: 
Haste thee and come; for the Philistines have made a raid upon the 
land. So Saul turned back from pursuing David, and went against the 
Philistines; therefore they called that place Sela-hammalekoth (The Rock 
of Divisions). And David went up from thence, and dwelt in the 
stronghold of Engedi (the Kid’s Fountain). 

Now when Saul returned from following up the Philistines, it was 
told him: Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. Then Saul took 
three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David 
and his men on the rock of the wild goats. And he came to the sheep- 
cotes by the way, where was a cave, and Saul went in to cover his feet. 
Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. 
And David’s men said to him: Behold the day in which Yahweh hath 
said unto thee: Lo, I deliver thine enemy into thine hand, and thou 
shalt do unto him as shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and 
cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe secretly. And it came to pass afterward, 
that David’s heart smote him because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. And 
he said to his men: Yahweh forbid, that I should do this thing to 
Yahweh’s anointed,—to put forth my hand against him, seeing that he 
is Yahweh’s anointed. So David checked his men with these words, 
and suffered them not to rise against Saul. And Satil rose up out of the 
cave, and went his way. 

David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave and cried after 
Saul, saying: My lord the King! And when Saul looked behind him, 


222 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


David bowed with his face to the earth, and prostrated himself. And 
David said to Saul: Wherefore hearkenest thou to men’s words, 
saying: Behold, David seeketh thy hurt? Behold, this day thine eyes 
have seen how that Yahweh had delivered thee to-day into my hand in 
the cave; and some bade me kill thee; but mine eye spared thee, and I 
said: I will not put forth my hand against my lord, for he is Yahweh’s 
anointed. Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in 
my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not; 
know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand, 
and I have not sinned against thee, though thou liest in wait for my 
life to take it. May Yahweh judge between me and thee, but my hand 
shall not be upon thee. As saith the proverb of the ancients: Out of 
the wicked cometh forth wickedness; but my hand shall not be upon 
thee. After whom is the King of Israel come out? after what dost thou 
pursue? after a dead dog? after a flea? Yahweh judge between me 
and thee, and see and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thy hand! 

And it came to pass, when David had ceased speaking these words 
unto Saul, that Saul said: Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul 
lifted up his voice, and wept. And he said to David: Thou art more 
righteous than I, for thou hast rendered me good, whereas I have ren- 
dered unto thee evil. And thou hast declared this day how thou hast 
dealt well with me; forasmuch as when Yahweh had delivered me up 
into thine hand, thou didst not kill me. Swear now therefore unto me 
by Yahweh, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me. And David 
sware unto Saul. And Saul went home; but David and his men gat them 
up into the stronghold. 

Now there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; 
and the man was very great; and he had three thousand sheep and a 
thousand goats; and he was shearing sheep in Carmel. And the name of 
the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife, Abigail. And the woman ~ 
was of good understanding, and of a beautiful form; but the man was 
churlish, and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb. And 
David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. And 
David sent ten young men, and David said unto the young men: Get 
you up to Carmel and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name; and thus 
shall ye say: All hail! and peace be both unto thee and peace be unto 
thy house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. And now I have heard 
that thou hast shearers; thy shepherds have now been with us, and we 
did them no hurt, neither was there aught missing unto them, all the 
while they were in Carmel. Ask thy young men, and they will tell 
thee. Wherefore let my young men find favor in thine eyes, for we 
come on a good day; give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thy hand 
unto thy servants, and unto thy son David. 

And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according 
to all these words in the name of David, and ceased. And Nabal answered 
David’s servants, and said: Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? 
There are many servants nowadays that break away every man from 
his master; shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh, 
that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men of whom I know 
not whence they are? So David’s young men turned on their way and 
went back, and came and told him according to all these words. And 
David said unto his men: Gird ye on every man his sword. And they 
girded on every man his sword; and there went up after David about 
four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the luggage. 

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying: Behold, 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 223 


David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and 
he flew upon them. But the men were very good unto us, and we 
were not hurt nor missed we anything while we were with them when 
we were in the fields; they were a wall unto us both by night and by 
day all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore, 
know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our 
master and against all his house; for he is such a chur] that one cannot 
speak to him. 

Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles 
of wine, and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched corn, 
and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and 
laid them on asses. And she said unto her young men: Go on before 
me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. 
And it was so, as she rode on her ass and came down by the covert of 
the hill, that behold, David and his men came down towards her; and 
she met them. (For David had said: Surely in vain have I kept all 
that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of 
all that pertained to him; and he hath returned me evil for good. God 
do so and more also unto the enmies of David, if I leave of all that per- 
tain unto him by the morning light so much as one male.) And when 
Abigail saw David, she made haste and alighted from her ass, and fell 
down before David on her face, and bowed to the ground. And she fell 
at his feet and said: Upon me, my lord, be the iniquity; and let thy 
handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear thou the words of 
thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this rude fellow, 
even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal (fool) is his name, and 
folly is with him. But I, thine handmaid, saw not the young men of 
my lord, when thou didst send them. Now therefore, my lord, as 
God liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing Yahweh hath withholden thee 
from blood-guiltiness, and from finding redress for thyself with thine 
own hand,—now therefore, let thine enemies and them that seek evil 
to my lord, be as Nabal. And now, this present which thy servant hath 
brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow 
my lord. Forgive, I pray thee, the trespass of thy handmaid; for 
Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord 
fighteth the battles of Yahweh, and evil hath not been found in thee all 
thy days. And though man is risen up to pursue thee, and to seek thy 
life, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with 
Yahweh thy God; and the souls of thine enemies them shall He sling 
out as from the hollow of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when 
Yahweh shall have done to my lord according to all the good that He 
hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee prince over 
Israel; that this shall be no stumbling-block unto thee nor offence of 
heart unto my lord,—either that thou hast shed blood without cause, 
or that my lord found redress for himself. And, when Yahweh shall 
have dealt well by my lord, then remember thy handmaiden. 

And David said to Abigail: Blessed be Yahweh the God of Israel 
who sent thee this day to meet me; and blessed be thy discretion, and 
blessed be thou that hast kept me this day from blood-guiltiness, and 
from finding redress for myself with mine own hand. For in very deed, 
as Yahweh the God of Israel liveth, who hath withholden me from 
hurting thee; except thou hadst made haste and come to meet me, 
surely there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light so much 
as one male. 

So David received of her hand that which she had brought him; 


224 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and he said unto her: Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have heark- 
ened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person. 

And Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he was holding a feast in his 
house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within 
him, for he was very drunken; wherefore she told him nothing, less or 
more, until the morning light. And it came to pass in the morning, 
when the wine had gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these 
things; and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And 
it came to pass, about ten days after, that Yahweh smote Nabal, so 
that he died. 

And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said: Blessed be 
Yahweh, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of 
Nabal, and hath kept back his servant from evil-doing; and the evil- 
doing of Nabal hath Yahweh returned upon his own head. And David 
sent and spake concerning Abigail to take her to wife. And when the 
servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her 
saying: David hath sent us to thee, to take thee to him to wife. And 
she arose and bowed down with her face to the earth, and said: Behold, 
thy handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 
And Abigail hastened and arose and rode upon an ass, with five damsels 
of hers that followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, 
and became his wife. 

David took also Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they became both of them 
his wives. Now Saul had given Micha! his daughter, David’s wife, to 
Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim. 


Then David said in his heart: I shall now be swept away one day 
by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than that I should 
escape into the land of the Philistines; then Saul will despair of seek- 
ing me any more in all the borders of Israel; so shall I escape out of his 
hand. And David arose and passed over, he and the six hundred men 
that were with him, unto Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. And 
David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his 
household, David also with his two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and 
Abigail, the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. And it was told Saul that David 
was fled to Gath; and he sought for him again no more. 

And David said unto Achish: If now I have found favor in thy 
sight, let them give me a place in one of the cities of the country, that I 
may dwell there; for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city 
with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day; wherefore Ziklag 
belongeth unto the kings of Judah unto this day. ; 

And the number of the days that David dwelt in the country of the 
Philistines was a full year and four months. And David and his men 
went-up and made a raid upon the Geshurites and the Gizrites and the 
Amalekites; for these were the inhabitants of the land of old, as thou 
goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt. And David smote the land, 
and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep and the 
oxen and the asses and the camels and the apparel. And he returned 
and came to Achish. And Achish said: Where have ye made a raid 
to-day? And David said: Against the south of Judah and against the 
South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites. Now 
David left neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying: 
Lest they should tell on us, saying: Thus did David, and such hath 
been his manner all the while that he hath dwelt in the country of the 
Philistines. And Achish believed David, saying: He hath made his peo- 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 220 


ple Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant 
for ever. 

And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their 
hosts together to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David: Know 
thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me in the host, thou and 
thy men. 

Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek; 
and the Israelites pitched by the fountain which is in Jezreel. And the 
lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands; and 
David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish. Then said 
the princes of the Philistines: What do these Hebrews here? And 
Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines: Is not this David, the 
servant of Saul the king of Israel, who hath been with me these days or 
these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell away unto me 
unto this day? And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; 
and the princes of the Philistines said unto him: Make this fellow 
return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed 
him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be 
an adversary to us; for wherewith should he reconcile himself to his 
master? Should it not be with the heads of these men? Is not this 
David, of whom they sang: 


Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 


Then Achish called David, and said unto him: Surely, as Yahweh 
liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in 
with me in the host is good in my sight; for I have not found evil in 
thee, from the day of thy coming unto me unto this day. Nevertheless, 
the lords favor thee not. Wherefore, now, return and go in peace, that 
thou displease not the lords of the Philistines. And David said unto 
Achish: But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant 
so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go and 
fight against the enemies of my lord the king? And Achish answered 
and said to David: I know that thou art good in my sight as an angel 
of God; notwithstanding, the princes of the Philistines have said: He 
shall not go up with us to the battle. Wherefore, rise thou up early in 
the morning with thy master’s servants that are come with thee; and as 
soon as ye be up, early in the morning, and have light, depart. So David 
and his men rose up early in the morning to depart to return into the 
land of the Philistines; and the Philistines went up to Jezreel. 

Now it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag 
on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag, 
and burned it with fire, and had taken the women captives that were 
therein; they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, 
and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and 
behold! it was burned with fire; and their wives and their daughters 
were taken captive. Then David and the people that were with him 
lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 
And David’s two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, 
and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly 
distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all 
the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; 
but David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God. 

And David said unto Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son: I pray 
thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the 


226 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


ephod to David. And David inquired of Yahweh: Shall I pursue after 
this troop? Shall I overtake them? And He answered him: Pursue, 
for thou shalt surely overtake them, and shalt recover them without 
fail. So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, 
and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. 
But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred abode 
behind, who were so faint, that they could not go over the brook Besor. 

And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, 
and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; 
and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins; 
and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him; for he had eaten 
no bread nor drunk any water three days and three nights. And David 
said unto him: 'To whom belongest thou? and whence are thou? And 
he said: I am a young Egyptian, servant to an Amalekite; and my 
master left me, because three days agone I fell sick. We made an in- 
vasion upon the south of the Cherethites and upon that which belongeth 
to Judah and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire. 
And David said unto him: Canst thou bring me down to this company? 
And he said: Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me 
nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down 
to this company. 

And when he had brought him down, behold, they were all spread 
abroad upon the earth, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all 
the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, 
and out of the land of Judah. And David smote them from the twilight 
even to the evening of the next day; and there escaped not a man of 
them save four hundred young men who rode upon camels and fled. 
And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away; and 
David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, 
neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor 
any thing that they had taken to them. David recovered all. And David 
took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before the other 
cattle, and said: This is David’s spoil. 

And David came to the two hundred men who were so faint that . 
they could not follow David, whom also they had caused to abide by 
the brook Besor; and they came forth to meet David, and to meet the 
people who were with him; and when David came near to the people, 
he saluted them. Then answered all the wicked and base men of those 
that had gone with David, and said: Because they went not with us, 
we will not give them aught of the spoil that we have recovered, save to 
every man his wife and children, that he may lead them away and 
depart. Then said David: Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that 
which Yahweh hath given unto us, who hath preserved us and delivered 
the troop that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken 
unto you in this matter? For as is the share of him who goeth down 
to the battle, so shall his share be that tarrieth by the baggage; they 
shall share alike. And it was so from that day forward; and he made 
it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day. 

And when David came to Ziklag he sent of the spoil unto the Sih 
of Judah, to his friends, saying: Behold a present for you of the spoil 
of the enemies of the Lord; to them which were in Bethel, and to them 
which were in south Ramoth, and to them which were in Jattir, and to 
them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to 
them which were in Eshtemoa, and to them which were in Rachal, and | 
to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES : 227 


which were in the cities of the Kenites, and to them which were in Hor- 
mah, and to them which were in Chorashan, and to them which were in 
Athach, and to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where 
David himself and his men were wont to haunt. 


XV 
OF JEROBOAM, FIRST KING OF ISRAEL 


The northern tribes revolt against Rehoboam, and recall Jeroboam from 
Kgypt to rule them. He builds altars where his people may worship 
instead of going to Jerusalem. A man of God prophesies against the 
king and the altar, but is himself slain for disobedience to God’s 
command. After Nadab, son of Jeroboam, a succession of usurpers 
rule in Israel, of whom Baasha is the greatest. (4 Kings, xii, 2b, 
pa, 20; 20-00; Xi11y, 4-323 Xiv,.1-48) (20; xv,°25-30;) xvi, 7; 2-4.) 


Jeroboam the son of Nebat was dwelling in Egypt, whither he had 
fled from the presence of Solomon, and they sent and called him. And 
when all Israel knew that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called 
him unto the congregation, and made him king over Israel. Then 
Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and dwelt 
there. And he went out thence and fortified Penuel. 

Now Jeroboam said in his heart: The kingdom will surely return 
to the house of David; if the people go up to offer sacrifices in the 
house of Yahweh in Jerusalem, then will the heart of the people turn 
back to their lord, even to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Whereupon 
Jeroboam took counsel, and made two calves of gold. And he said to 
the people: Ye have gone up long enough to Jerusalem. Behold thy 
gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt! And he 
put the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And he made 
houses for high places, and made priests from among the people that 
were not of the sons of Levi. 

And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, like unto the 
feast that is in Judah, and he went up unto the altar which is in Beth-el 
to sacrifice unto the calves that he had made; and he placed in Beth-el 
the priests of the high places that he had made. And he went up unto 
the altar which he had made in Beth-el on the fifteenth day in the 
eighth month, even in the month that he had chosen of his own heart; and 
he ordained a feast for the Children of Israel, and went up to the 
altar to offer. 

And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of 
Yahweh unto Beth-el; and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer. 
And he cried against the altar by the command of Yahweh, and said: 
O altar! altar; thus saith Yahweh: Behold, a son shall be born to the 
house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the 
priests of the high places that offer upon thee, and men’s bones shall 
they burn upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying: This 
is the sign which Yahweh hath spoken: Behold, the altar shall be rent, 
and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. 

And it came to pass, when the king heard the saying of the man of 
God which he cried against the altar in Beth-el, that Jeroboam put 
forth his hand from the altar saying: Lay hold on him! And his hand, 
which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it 


228 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


back to him. The altar also was rent and the ashes poured out from 
the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by 
the word of Yahweh. And the king answered and said unto the man 
of God: Entreat now the favor of Yahweh, thy God, and pray for me 
that my hand may be restored me. And the man of God entreated Yah- 
weh, and the king’s hand was restored him, and became as it was before. 
And the king said unto the man of God: Come home with me and refresh 
thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man of God said unto 
the king: If thou wilt give me half thy house, I will not go in with thee, 
neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For so was it 
charged me by the word of Yahweh, saying: ‘Thou shalt eat no bread, 
nor drink water, neither return by the way that thou camest. So he 
went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Beth-el. 

Now there dwelt an old prophet in Beth-el; and one of his sons came 
and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in 
Beth-el; and the words which he had spoken unto the king they told 
them unto their father. And their father said unto them: What way 
went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went that 
came from Judah. And he said unto his sons: Saddle me the ass. So 
they saddled him the ass, and he rode thereon. And he went after the 
man of God, and found him under a terebinth; and he said unto him: 
Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said: I am. 
Then he said unto him: Come home with me and eat bread. And he 
said: I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee; neither will I 
eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place. For it was said 
to me by the word of Yahweh: Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink 
water there, nor turn back to go by the way that thou camest. And he 
said unto him: I also am a prophet as thou art; and an angel spake 
unto me by the word of Yahweh, saying: Bring him back with thee into 
thy house, that he may eat bread and drink water. (He lied unto him.) 
So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house and drank 
water. 

And it came to pass as they sat at the table, that the word of Yahweh 
came unto the prophet that brought him back; and he said unto the 
man of God that came from Judah: Thus saith Yahweh: Forasmuch 
as thou hast rebelled against the word of Yahweh, and hast not kept the 
commandment which Yahweh, thy God, commanded thee, but camest 
back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He 
said to thee: Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcass shall not 
come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers. And it came to pass, after he 
had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him - 
the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back. Now, when 
he had started, a lion met him by the way and slew him; and his car- 
cass was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it; the lion also stood 
by the carcass. And behold, men passed by, and saw the carcass cast in 
the way, and the lion standing by the carcass; and they came and told 
it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. 

And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard of 
it, he said: It is the man of God who rebelled against the word of 
Yahweh; therefore Yahweh hath delivered him to the lion which hath 
torn him and slain him, according to the word of Yahweh, which He spake 
unto him. And he spake to his sons, saying: Saddle me the ass. And 
they saddled it. And he went and found his carcass cast in the way, and 
the ass and the lion standing by the carcass; the lion had not eaten the 
cascass nor torn the ass. And the prophet took up the carcass of the 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES - 229 


man of God and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back; and he came 
to the city of the old prophet to lament and to bury him. And he laid 
his carcass in his own grave, and they made lamentation for him: Alas, 
my brother! And it came to pass after he had buried him, that he spake 
to his sons, saying: When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre 
wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones by his bones. For 
the saying which he cried by the word of Yahweh against the altar of 
Beth-el, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the 
cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass. 

After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made 
again from among all the people priests of the high places; whosoever 
would, he consecrated him that he might be one of the priests of the 
high places. And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, 
even to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth. 

At that time, Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, fell sick. And Jeroboam 
said to his wife: Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be 
not known to be wife of Jeroboam, and get thee to Shiloh; behold, there 
is Ahijah the prophet who spake concerning me that I should be king 
over the people. And take with thee ten loaves and biscuits and a cruse 
of honey and go to him; he will tell thee what shall become of the child. 
And Jeroboam’s wife did so and arose and went to Shiloh; and she came 
to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set 
by reason of his age. Now Yahweh had said unto Ahijah: Behold, the 
wife of Jeroboam cometh to inquire of thee concerning her son; for he 
is sick. Thus and thus shalt thou say unto her; for it will be, when she 
cometh in, that she will feign herself to be another woman. 

And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came 
in at the door, that he said: Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why 
feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy 
tidings. Go, tell Jeroboam: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: 
Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people and made thee 
prince over My people Israel, and rent the kingdom away from the 
house of David and gave it thee; and yet thou hast not been as My 
servant David, who kept My commandments, and who followed Me with 
all his heart to do that only which was right in Mine eyes; but hast done 
evil above all that was before thee, and hast gone and made thee other 
gods and molten images to provoke Me, and hast cast Me behind thy 
back;—therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, 
and will cut off from Jeroboam every man-child, both him that is shut 
up and him that is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away 
the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweepeth away dung till it be all gone. 
Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that 
dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat; for Yahweh hath spoken 
it. Arise thou therefore, get thee to thy house; and when thy feet enter 
into the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall make lamentation 
for him and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave; 
because in him is found some good thing toward Yahweh, the God of 
Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover, Yahweh will raise Him up 
a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day. 
But what is it even then? for Yahweh will smite Israel, as a reed is 
shaken in the water; and He will root up Israel out of this good land 
He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River; be- 
cause they have made their Asherim, provoking Yahweh. And He will 
give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he hath sinned, 
and wherewith he hath made Israel to sin. 


230 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah; and 
as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. And all Israel 
buried him and made lamentation for him; according to the word of 
Yahweh, which He spake by the hand of His servant Ahijah the prophet. 

And the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years; 
and he slept with his fathers; and Nadab his son reigned in his stead. 

And Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign over Israel in the 
second year of Asa, king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. 
And he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and walked in 
the way of his father and in his sin wherewith he had made Israel to sin. 
Then Baasha the son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar, conspired 
against him; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon which belonged to the 
Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. 
And in the third year of Asa, king of Judah, did Baasha slay him, 
and reigned in his stead. And it came to pass that, as soon as he was 
king, Baasha smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam 
any that breathed that he did not destroy him, according to the saying 
of Yahweh which He spake by the mouth of Ahijah the Shilonite, for 
the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and wherewith he made Israel to 
sin, and because of the provocation with which he provoked Yahweh, the 
God of Israel. 

But the word of Yahweh came against Baasha and against his house 
by the hand of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, both because of all 
the evil he was doing in the sight of Yahweh to provoke Him by the 
work of his hand, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he 
had destroyed it, and He said: Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the 
dust, and made thee ruler over My people Israel; and thou hast walked 
in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made Israel to sin, to provoke Me 
with their sins; behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house; 
and I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 
Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that 
dieth in the field, shall the fowls of the air eat. 

And Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah; and 
Elah his son reigned in his stead. He reigned two years; and his servant 
Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was 
in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was steward 
of his house in Tirzah; and Zimri went in and smote him and killed him, 
and reigned in his stead. And as soon as he sat on the throne, he smote 
all the house of Baasha; he left hm not a single man-child, neither of his 
kinsfolk nor of his friends. Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of 
Baasha, according to the word of Yahweh, which He spake against 
Baasha by Jehu the prophet. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 231 
XVI 


OF ELIJAH THE TISHBITE 


How he rebuked Ahab, and proclaimed a drought. How he saved a 
Pheenician woman, and restored her child to life. How he exter- 
minated the priests of Baal, introduced by Jezebel. How Jezebel 
decreed his death, and he fled to Horeb. Yahweh’s revelation to 
him that He dwells in the heart of man. The doom he pronounced 
upon Jezebel for her breach of the law. The marvels attributed to 
ae Ce ascension. (4 Kings, xvii-xix; xxi; 2 Kings, i, 2-17; 
ii, 1-18. 


A. Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab: 
As Yahweh, the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand, there shall 
not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word. And the 
word of Yahweh came unto him, saying: Get thee hence and turn thee 
eastward, and hide thee by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan. 
And thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens 
to feed thee there. So he went and did according to Yahweh’s word; 
for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith which is before Jordan. 
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread 
and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. 

And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up because 
there had been no rain in the land. And the word of Yahweh came to 
him, saying: Arise, get thee to Zarephath which belongeth to Zidon, 
and dwell there; behold, I have commanded a widow woman to sustain 
thee there. And he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came 
to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there, gathering 
sticks; and he called to her, and said: Fetch me, I pray thee, a little 
water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, 
h3 called to her, and said: Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in 
thy hand. And she said: As Yahweh, thy God, liveth, I have not a 
cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a ecruse; and 
behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me 
and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto her: Fear 
not; go and do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first 
and bring it to me, and afterwards make for thee and thy son. For 
. thus saith Yahweh the God of Israel: The barrel of meal shall not 
waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that Yahweh 
sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to 
the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many 
days. 

And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, 
the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore that 
there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah: What have 
I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to eall 
my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? And he said unto her: 
Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him 
up unto a loft where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And 
he cried unto Yahweh, and said: O Yahweh, my God, hast Thou also 
brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son? 
And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto 
Yahweh, and said: O Yahweh, my God, I pray Thee, let this child’s 
scul come into him again. 

And Yahweh heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came 


232 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought 
him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his 
mother; and Elijah said: See, thy son liveth. And the woman said 
unto Elijah: Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that 
the word of Yahweh in thy mouth is truth. 

And it came to pass after many days, that the word of Yahweh came 
to Elijah in the third year, saying: Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and 
I will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to show himself 
unto Ahab. 

Now, there was a sore famine in Samaria. And Ahah called Obadiah, 
which was governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly; 
for it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Yahweh, that Obadiah 
took an hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them 
with bread and water). And Ahab said unto Obadiah: Go into the land 
unto all fountains of water and unto all brooks; peradventure we may 
find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the 
beasts. So they divided all the land between them to pass throughout 
it. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way 
by himself. 

And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him; and he 
knew him, and fell on his face, and said: Art thou my lord Elijah? 
And he answered him: Iam. Go, tell thy lord: Behold, Elijah is here. 
And he said: How have I sinned, that thou wouldst deliver thy servant 
into the hand of Ahab, to slay me? As Yahweh, thy God, liveth, there 
is no nation or kingdom whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee; 
and when they said: He is not here, he took an oath of the kingdom 
and nation, that they found thee not. And now thou sayest: Go, tell 
thy lord: Behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass as soon as 
I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of Yahweh shall carry thee whither 
I know not; and when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he 
shall slay me; but I thy servant fear Yahweh from my youth. Was it 
not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of Yahweh, 
how I hid an hundred men of Yahweh’s prophets in a cave, and fed 
them with bread and water? And now thou sayest: Go, tell thy lord: 
Behold, Elijah is here; and he will slay me! 

And Elijah said: As Yahweh Sabaoth liveth, before whom I stand, I 
will surely show myself unto him to-day. 

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him, and Ahab went to meet 
Elijah. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto 
him: Is it thou, thou troubler of Israel? And he answered: I have 
not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father’s house, in that ye have 
forsaken the commandments of Yahweh, and thou hast followed the 
Baalim. Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel unto mount 
Carmel and the prophets of Baal, four hundred and fifty, and the 
prophets of the groves, four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table. So 
Ahab sent unto all the Children of Israel, and gathered the prophets 
together unto mount Carmel. 

And Elijah came near unto all the people, and said: How long halt 
ye between two opinions? If Yahweh be God, follow Him; but if Baal, 
follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah 
unto the people: I, even I only, remain a prophet of Yahweh; but 
Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore 
give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, 
and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under; and I will 
dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 233 


call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of Yahweh; 
and the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God. And all the people 
answered and said: It is well spoken. 

And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal: Choose you one bullock 
for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the 
name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock 
which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of 
Baal from morning even until noon, saying: O Baal, hear us! But 
there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they danced about the 
altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked 
them, and said: Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is 
pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must 
be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their man- 
ner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And 
it came to pass when midday was past, that they prophesied until the 
time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was neither 
voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. 

Then said Elijah unto all the people: Come near unto me. And 
all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of Yah- 
weh, which was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according 
to the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob (unto whom the word of 
Yahweh came, saying: Israel shall be thy name); and with the stones 
he built an altar in the name of Yahweh; and he made a trench about 
the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put 
the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid it on the wood. 
And he said: ~Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt- 
sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said: Do it a second time. And 
they did it a second time. And he said: Do it a third time. And they 
did it a third time. And the water ran round about the altar, and he 
filled the trench also with water. 

And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacri- 
fice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said: Yahweh, God of 
Abraham, of Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art 
God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these 
things at Thy command. Hear me, O Yahweh, hear me; that this people 
may know that Thou art the God Yahweh, and that Thou hast turned 
their heart back again. 

Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the burnt-sacrifice, and 
the wood, and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was 
in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; 
and they said: Yahweh, He is God! Yahweh, He is God! 

And Elijah said unto them: ‘Take the prophets of Baal; let not one 
of them escape. And they took them; and Elijah brought them down to 
the brook Kishon, and slew them there. 

And Elijah said unto Ahab: Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is 
a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. 
But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon 
the earth and put his face between his knees, and said unto his servant: 
Go up, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked, and said: 
There is nothing. And he said: Go again seven times. And it came to 
pass the seventh time, that he said: Behold, there riseth a little cloud 
out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said: Go up, say unto Ahab: 
Prepare, and get thee down, that the rain. stop thee not. And it came 
to pass in the meanwhile, that the heaven became black with clouds 
and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jez- 


234 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEI, 


reel. And the hand of Yahweh was on Elijah; and he girded up his 
loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. 

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done; and withal, how he 
had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger 
unto Elijah, saying: So may the gods do to me and more also, if I 
make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow, about this 
time. And when he understood, he arose and went for his life, and 
came to Beer-sheba which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. 
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and 
sat down under a broom-tree. And he entreated that he might die, and 
said: It is enough; now, O Yahweh; take away my life; for I am no 
better than my fathers. And he lay down and slept under a broom-tree. 
And, behold, a messenger touched him and said unto him: Arise and 
eat. And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on 
the hot stones, and a cruse of water. And he did eat and drink, and laid 
him down again. And the messenger of Yahweh came again a second 
time and touched him, and said: Arise and eat; for the journey is too 
great for thee. And he arose and did eat; and he went in the strength 
of that meal unto Horeb, the mount of God. 

And he came thither into a cave and lodged there; and behold. the 
word of Yahweh came unto him, and He said unto him: What doest 
thou here, Elijah? And he said: I have been very jealous for Yahweh, 
the God of hosts; for the Children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, 
thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and 
I, even I only am left; and they seek my life to take it away. And He 
said: Go forth, and stand upon the mount before Yahweh. And behold, 
Yahweh passed by. And a great and strong wind rent the mountains, 
and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in 
the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in 
the earthquake. And after the earthquake, fire; but Yahweh was not 
in the fire. And after the fire, a still, small voice. And it was so, when 
Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out 
and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice 
unto him, and said: What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said: I 
have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts, for the Children 
of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and 
slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and 
they seek my life to take it away. 

And Yahweh said unto him: Go, return on thy way to the wilderness 
of Damascus. And when thou comest, thou shalt anoint Hazael to be 
king of Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king 
over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou 
anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall be that him that 
escapeth from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him that 
escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet will I leave seven 
thousand in Israel which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth 
which hath not kissed him. 

So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who 
was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him and he with the 
twelfth. And Elijah passed over unto him, and cast his mantle upon 
him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said: Let me, I 
pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. 
And he said unto him: Go back; for what have I done to thee? And 
he returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen and slew 
them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 235 


unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, 
and ministered unto him. 

Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, 
hard by the palace of king Ahab, king of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto 
Naboth, saying: Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden 
of herbs because it is near my house; and I will give thee for it a 
better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good unto thee, I will give thee 
the worth of it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab: Yahweh forbid 
that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. 

And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the 
word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken unto him; for he had said: 
I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down 
upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread. 

But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him: Why is thy 
spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread? And he said unto her: Be- 
cause I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him: Give me 
thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee an- 
other vineyard for it; and he answered: I will not give thee my vine- 
yard. And Jezebel his wife said unto him: Dost thou now govern 
the kingdom of Israel? Arise and eat bread, and let thine heart be 
merry; I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she 
wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent 
the letters to the elders and to the nobles that were in his city and 
dwelt with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters, saying: Proclaim 
a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people; and set two men, sons 
of Belial, before him to bear witness against him, saying: Thou didst 
blaspheme God and the king. Then carry him out and stone him, that 
he die. 

And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles that dwelt 
in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, as it was written in the 
letters which she had sent unto them. They proclaimed a fast, and 
set Naboth on high among the people. And there came in two men, 
sons of Belial, and sat before him; and the men of Belial witnessed 
against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying: 
Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth 
out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died. 

Then they sent word to Jezebel, saying: Naboth is stoned and is 
dead. And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned 
and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab: Arise, take possession of the 
vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for 
money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead. And it came to pass when 
Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to 
the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. And 
the word of Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Arise, go 
down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is 
in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. And 
thou shalt speak to him, saying: Thus saith Yahweh: Hast thou 
killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, say- 
ing: Thus saith Yahweh: In the place where dogs licked the blood 
of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. 

And Ahab said to Elijah: Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And 
he answered: I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to 
work evil in the sight of Yahweh. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, 
and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every 
man-child, both him that is shut up and him that is left at large in 


236 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Israel. And I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the 
son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the 
provocation wherewith thou hast provoked Me, and hast made Israel 
to sin. And of Jezebel also spake Yahweh, saying: The dogs shall eat 
Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel. 

And it came to pass when Ahab heard these words, that he rent 
his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in 
sackcloth, and went softly. And the word of Yahweh came to Elijah 
the Tishbite, saying: Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before 
Me? Because he humbleth himself before Me, I will not bring the 
evil in his days; but in his son’s days will I bring the evil upon his 
house.’ 


B. And Ahaziah the son of Ahab fell down through the lattice in his 
upper chamber in Samaria, and was sick. And he sent messengers and 
said unto them: Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, whether 
I shall recover of this sickness. But a messenger of Yahweh said unto 
Elijah the Tishbite: Arise, go to meet the messengers of the king of 
Samaria, and say unto them: Is it because there is no God in Israel 
that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? Now therefore, 
saith Yahweh: Thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou 
are gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. 

And the messengers returned unto him, and he said unto them: 
Why is it that ye are returned? And they said unto him: There came 
up a man to meet us, and he said unto us: Go, return to the king that 
sent you, and say unto him: Thus saith Yahweh: Is it because there 
is no God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Baal-zebub the god 
of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed whither 
thou hast gone up, but shalt surely die. And he said unto them: What 
manner of man was he that came up to meet you, and told you these 
words? And they answered him: He was a hairy man, and girt with 
a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said: It is Elijah the 
Tishbite. 

Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And 
he went up to him; and behold, he sat on the top of a hill. And he 
spake unto him: O man of God, the king hath said: Come down. 
And Elijah answered and said: If I be a man of God, let fire come 
down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came 
down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. And again he 
sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he said 
unto him: O man of God, thus hath the king said: Come down quickly. 
And Elijah answered and said unto him: If I be a man of God, let 
fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And 
the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 
fifty. And again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. 
And the third captain of fifty went up, and fell on his knees before 

1It is now generally admitted that the account of Elijah’s missions, even those narrated 
in 1 Kings, is composite. Critics differ as to the parts to be assigned to the several authors; 
but all are agreed that chapters xviii and xix of 1 Kings are by a master hand, elsewhere 
unknown. The story of the widow and her son is probably by E, who was not unequal 
to the rude tenderness of the latter part of ch. xvii, or to its dramatic opening; but the 
superb scene on mount Carmel, and the unerring psychology of the influence of the storm 
upon the great prophet were beyond him. The other story (of 2 Kings, i, 1-17) shows the 
eagerness of the populace to exaggerate any marvels ascribed to the great wonder-worker. 
The same is true of the miracles of Elisha. They were all spread abroad and magnified 
before they were collected by E, and before the advent of the literary prophets of the eighth 


century, — The superstitions are from the people; the setting, the style, and the appeal to 
the emotions are by E, and not unworthy of the author of parts of Genesis and of Judges. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 237 


Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him: O man of God, I pray 
thee, let my life, and the lives of these fifty thy servants, be precious 
in thy sight. Behold, there came down fire from heaven, and consumed 
the two former captains of fifty with their fifties; but now, let my life 
be precious in thy sight. And the messenger of Yahweh said unto 
Elijah: Go down with him; be not afraid of him. And he arose, and 
went down with him unto the .king. 

And he said unto him: Thus saith Yahweh: Forasmuch as thou 
hast sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, is it 
because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? therefore 
thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou art gone up, but 
shalt surely die. 

So he died, according to the word of Yahweh which Elijah had 
spoken. 


Cc. And if came to pass, when Yahweh would take up Elijah by a 
whirlwind into heaven, that Elijah and Elisha were walking from Gilgal. 
And Elijah said unto Elisha: Tarry here, I pray thee, for Yahweh 
hath sent me as far as Beth-el. And Elisha said: As Yahweh liveth, 
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to 
Beth-el. And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-el came forth 
to Elisha, and said unto him: Knowest thou that Yahweh will take 
away thy master from thy head to-day? And he said: Yea, I know 
it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him: Elisha, tarry here, 
I pray thee, for Yahweh hath sent me to Jericho. And he said: As 
Yahweh liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And the 
sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came near to Elisha and said 
unto him: Knowest thou that Yahweh will take away thy master from 
thy head to-day? And he answered: Yea, I know it; hold ye your 
peace. And Elijah said unto him: Tarry here, I pray thee; for Yahweh 
hath sent me to the Jordan. And he said: As Yahweh liveth, and as 
thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. 

And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood over 
against them afar off; and they two stood by the Jordan. And Elijah 
took his mantle and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and 
they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry 
ground. And it came to pass when they were gone over, that Elijah 
said unto Elisha: Ask what I shall.do for thee, before I am taken 
from thee. And Elisha said: I pray thee, let a double portion of 
thy spirit be upon me. And he said: Thou hast asked a hard thing; 
nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so 
unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they 
still went on, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses 
of fire, which parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a 
whirlwind into heaven. ; 

And Elisha saw it, and he cried: My father, my father, the chariots 
of Israel and the horsemen thereof! And he saw him no more. And 
he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them into two pieces. He 
took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back 
and stood by the bank of the Jordan. And he took the mantle of 
Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters and said: Where is 
Yahweh, the God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, 
they were divided hither and thither, and Elisha went over. 

And when the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho some way 
off saw him, they said: The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And 


238 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


they came to meet him, and bowed down to the ground before him. 
And they said unto him: Behold now, there are with thy servants fifty 
strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master; lest per- 
adventure the spirit of Yahweh hath taken him, and cast him upon 
some mountain or into some valley. And he said: Ye shall not send. 
But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said: Send. They 
sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him 
not. And they came back to him while he tarried at Jericho. And 
he said: Did I not say unto you: Go not! 


XVII 
OF ELISHA, THE MIRACLE-WORKER AND KING-MAKER 


A. The miracles he performed.* (2 Ki. i, 19-22; iv, 1-37, 38-441, 42-44; 
Vill deOo Veto, CUreue a Vived lalote 


Now the men of the city [Jericho] said unto Elisha: Behold, we 
pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth; but 
the water is bad, and the land miscarrieth. And he said: Bring me 
a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And 
he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and 
said: Thus saith Yahweh: +I have healed these waters; there shall 
not be from thence any more death or miscarrying.. So the waters 
were healed unto this day, according to the word of Elisha which he 
spake. 

And he went up from thence unto Beth-el; and as he was going up 
by the way, there came forth out of the city little children and mocked 
him, and said unto him: Go up, thou baldhead! go up thou baldhead! 
And he looked behind and saw them, and he cursed them in the name 
of Yahweh. And there came two she-bears out of the wood and tore 
forty and two of them. And he went thence to mount Carmel, and 
from thence returned to Samaria. 

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the 
prophets unto Elisha, saying: Thy servant my husband is dead; and 
thou knowest that thy servant did fear Yahweh; and the creditor is 
come to take unto him my two children to be bondmen. And Elisha 
said unto her: What shall I do for thee? Tell me; what hast thou 
in the house? And she said: Thy handmaid hath not anything in the 
house, save a pot of oil. Then he said: Go, borrow thee vessels abroad 
of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And thou 
shalt go in and shut the door upon thee and thy sons, and pour out 
into all those vessels; and thou shalt set aside all that are full. So 


prominent traits. He was a kind and efficient helper in distress, whether of men of his 
own class among the ‘Schools of the Prophets’’, of a foreigner, or of the needy and sorrow- 
ful among the poor; an able adviser of kings and an ardent patriot, not above using shady 
or desperate means to further the good of his people; and a worker of miracles. But on 
first reading, only the last makes any impression. This is due to the editors’ efforts to give 
in words a chronological parallel of the reigns in the two native kingdoms and among the 
surrounding nations. They may have thought that this was what J (whose methods they 
closely followed) intended for the Twin Kingdoms; but he was only concerned with the 
four usurpers in Israel during Asa’s long reign in Judah, with each of whom Asa had to do. 
Their attempt was the more confusing, because of the similarity or exact doubling of the 


names of the kings in the twin kingdoms. The separation of the prophet’s different activi- 
ties, as here given, is as near! 


y as possible in accord with their original presentment, 
worked out by eminent scholars, 1 : ni 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 239 


she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons; 
they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to 
pass when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son: Bring 
me yet a vessel. And he said unto her: There is not a vessel more. 
And the oil stayed. Then she came, and told the man of God. And 
he said: Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons 
of the rest. ; 

And it fell upon a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was 
a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, 
that as often as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And 
she said to her husband: Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy 
man of God that passeth by us continually. Let us make, I pray thee, 
a little chamber on the roof, and let us set for him there a bed and a 
table and a stool and a candlestick; and when it shall be that he cometh 
to us, he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day that he came 
thither; and he turned into the upper chamber, and lay there. And he 
said to Gehazi, his servant: Call this Shunammite. And when he had 
called her, she stood before him. And he said unto him: Say now unto 
her: Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is 
to be done for thee? Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to 
the captain of the host? And she answered: I dwell among mine own 
people. And he said: What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi 
answered: Verily, she hath no son, and her husband is old. And he 
said: Call her. And when he had ealled her, she stood in the door. 
And he said: At this season, when the time cometh round, thou shalt 
embrace a son. And she said: Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not 
lie to thy handmaid. But the woman conceived, and bare a son at that 
season, when the time came round, as Elisha had said unto her. 

Now when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to 
his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father: My head, my 
head! And he said to his servant: Carry him to his mother. And 
when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on 
her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up and laid him 
on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went 
out. And she called unto her husband, and said: Send me, I pray thee, 
one of the servants and one of the asses, that I may run unto the man 
of God, and come back. And he said: Wherefore wilt thou go to him 
to-day? it is neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said: Well! Then 
she saddled an ass, and said to her servant: Drive, and go forward; 
slacken not the riding, except I bid thee. So she went, and came unto 
the man of God to mount Carmel. 

And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that 
he said to Gehazi, his servant: Behold, yonder is that Shunammite. 
Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her: Is it well with 
thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she 
answered: It is well. And when she came to the man of God to the 
hill, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came near to thrust her 
away; but the man of God said: Let her alone; for her soul is bitter 
within her, and Yahweh hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. 
Then she said: Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say: Do not 
deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi: Gird up thy loins, and take my 
staff in thy hand, and go thy way; if thou meet any man, salute him 
not; and if any salute thee, answer him not; and lay my staff upon the 
face of the child. And the mother of the child said: As Yahweh liveth, 
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed 


240 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the 
face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore, 
he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not 
awaked. 

And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was 
dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door 
upon them twain, and prayed unto Yahweh. And he went up and lay 
upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon 
his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and he stretched himself upon 
him; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he turned, and 
walked in the house to and fro, and went up, and stretched himself 
upon him; and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened 
his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said: Call the Shunammite. So 
he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said: Take | 
up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed down 
to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out. 

And Elisha came again to Gilgal; and there was a dearth in the 
land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he 
said to his servant: Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the 
sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, 
and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof of wild gourds his lapful, 
and came and shredded them into the pot of pottage; for they knew 
them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass 
as they were eating the pottage, that they cried out, and said: O man 
of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. 
But he said: Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he 
said: Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no 
harm in the pot. 

And there came a man from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man 
of God bread of the first-fruits; twenty loaves of barley, and fresh 
ears of corn in his sack. And he said: Give unto the people, that they 
may eat. And his servant said: How should I set this before a hundred 
men? But he said: Give the people, that they may eat; for thus saith 
Yahweh: They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before 
them; and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of 
Yahweh. 

Now Elisha had spoken unto the woman whose son he had restored 
to life, saying: Arise and go, thou and thy household, and sojourn 
wheresoever thou canst sojourn; for Yahweh hath called for a famine, 
and it shall come upon the land seven years. And the woman arose 
and did according to the word of the man of God; and she went with 
her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. 
And it came to pass at the end of seven years, that the woman returned 
out of the land of the Philistines; and she went forth to ery unto the 
king for her house and for her land. Now the king was talking with 
Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying: Tell me, I pray thee, 
all the great things that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass, as 
he was telling the king how he had restored to life him that was 
dead, that behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life, cried 
to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said: My lord, 
O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to 
life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king 
appointed unto her a certain officer, saying: Restore all that was hers, 
and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, 
even until now. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 241 


Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Aram, was a great 
man with his master, and held in esteem because by him Yahweh had 
given victory unto Aram; he was also a mighty man of valor; but he 
was a leper. And the Arameans had gone out in bands, and had brought 
away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited 
on Naaman’s wife. And she said to her mistress: Would that my lord 
were with the prophet that is in Samaria! Then would he recover him 
of his leprosy. And one went in and told his lord, saying: Thus and 
thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of the 
Arameans said: Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. 
And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thou- 
sand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the 
letter to the king of Israel, saying: Now when this letter is come unto 
thee, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest 
recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of 
Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said: Am I God, 
to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover 
a man of his leprosy? But consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh 
an occasion against me? 

And it was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king 
of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent unto the king, saying: 
Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and 
he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with 
his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of 
Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying: Go and wash in 
the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come back to thee, and 
thou shalt be clean. And Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said: 
Behold, I thought: He will surely come out to me, and stand and call 
on the name of Yahweh, his God, and wave his hand over the place, 
and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of 
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in 
them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. 

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said: My 
father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou 
not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee: Wash, 
and be clean! Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in 
the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh 
came back like unto that of a little child, and he was clean. 

And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and 
came and stood before him; and he said: Behold now, I know that 
there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, I pray 
thee, take a present of thy servant. But he said: As Yahweh liveth, 
before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take 
it; but he refused. And Naaman said: If not, yet I pray thee, let there 
be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth; for thy servant 
will henceforth offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other 
gods; but unto Yahweh. In this thing Yahweh pardon thy servant; 
when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, 
and he leaneth on my hand, and I prostrate myself in the house of 
Rimmon, may Yahweh pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said 
unto him: Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way. 

But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said: Behold, 
my master hath spared this Naaman the Aramean, in not receiving 
at his hand that which he brought. As Yahweh liveth, I will surely 
run after him, and take somewhat of him. And Gehazi followed after 


242 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Naaman. And when Naaman saw one running after him, he alighted 
from his chariot to meet him, and said: Is all well? And he said: 
All is well. My master hath sent me, saying: Behold, even now there 
are come to me from the hill-country of Ephraim two young men of 
the sons of the prophets; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and 
two changes of raiment. And Naaman said: Be content; take two 
talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver, with two 
changes of raiment, and laid them on two of his servants; and they 
bare them before him. And when he came to the hill, he took them 
from their hand, and bestowed them in the house; and he let the men 
go, and they departed. 

But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto 
him: Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said: Thy servant went 
no whither. And he said unto him: Went not my heart with thee, 
when the man turned back from his chariot to meet thee? Is it time 
to receive money and to receive garments, and olive-yards and vine- 
yards, and sheep and oxen, and man-servants and maid-servants? The 
leprosy of Naaman therefore shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed, 
for ever. And he went out of his presence, a leper as white as snow. 

And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha: Behold now, the 
place where we dwell is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, 
unto the Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make 
us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered: Go. And 
one said: Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he 
answered: I will go. So he went with them. And when they came 
to the Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, 
the axe-head fell into the water; and he cried out, and said: Alas, my 
master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said: Where fell 
it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and 
cast it in thither, and made the iron to swim. And he said: Take it 
to thee. So he put out his hand, and took it. 

Now the king of Aram warred against Israel; and he took counsel 
with his servants, saying: In such and such a place shall be my camp. 
And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying: Beware that 
thou pass not such a place, for thither the Aramaans are coming down. 
And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God had 
told him and warned him of; and he guarded himself there, not once 
nor twice. And the heart of the king of Aram was sore troubled for 
this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them: Will ye 
not tell me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his 
servants said: Nay, my lord O King, but Elisha, the prophet that is 
in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in 
thy bed-chamber. And he said: Go and see where he is, that I may 
send and fetch him. And it was told him: Behold, he is in Dothan. 

Therefore sent he thither horses and chariots and a great host; 
and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the 
servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a 
host with horses and chariots was round about the city. And his servant 
said unto him: Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered: 
Fear not, for they that are with us are more than they that are with 
them. And Elisha prayed, and said: O Yahweh, I pray Thee, open 
his eyes, that he may see. And Yahweh opened the eyes of the young 
man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and 
chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down upon 
him, Elisha prayed unto Yahweh, and said: Smite this people, I pray 
Thee, with blindness. And He smote them with blindness, according to 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 243 


the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them: This is not the way, 
neither is this the city, follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom 
ye seek. And he led them to Samaria. 

And it came to pass when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha 
said: O Yahweh, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. 
And Yahweh opened their eyes, and they saw that they were in the 
midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he 
saw them: My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And 
he answered: Thou shalt not smite them. Hast thou taken captive 
with thy sword and with thy bow these whom thou wouldest smite? 
Serve bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and 
go to their master. And the bands of Aram came no more into the 
land of Israel. 


B.—Elisha as the Counsellor and Maker of Kingssame 2 Kiet: Tita] 
V1, 24-33; vii, 1-20; viii, 7-15; ix, 1-37; X, 1-33, 35; xiii, 3-9, 14-25.) 


JUDAH ISRAEL. ARAM 
B.c 980. REHOBOAM c. 930. JEROBOAM founds the king-| 950. Rezon 
son of Solomon. dom. Heads the First Dynasty. reigns in Damascus. 
916-914. Abiah. 
913-873. ASA, 912-911. Nadab. 
911-888. BAASHA (Usurper) founds|c. 906. BEN HADAD I. 
the Second Dynasty. (Ally of Asa.) 


888-887. Elah. (Murdered by Zimri) 
887. Zimri. (Reigns 7 days) 
887-883. Civil War. 


883-877. OMRI. Founds Third Dynas- Lays siege to 


ty. Builds Samaria. Samaria. 
873-849. JEHOSHAPHAT | 876-854. AHAB m. (or=) JEZEBEL 
d. of the King of Zidon. 
Their d. Athaliah m. Joram. 
854-853. Ahaziah. Joram, k. of Judah HAZAEL 
849-843. JORAM m. d.| 853-849, Joram. “pressed hard on 
of Ahab Atha- Israel.”’ 
liah 
pete ae ie ages 842-815. JEHU. (Anointed by Elisha) 
842-836. ATHALIAH, qu. Founds Fourth Dynasty. 
886-797. JOASH 814-798. Jehoahaz. 
797-779. Amaziah 798-783. Joash. 
779-740. UZZIAH. 783-743. JEROBOAM II? BEN-HADAD II. 


(Azariah) 





Now Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. Mesha, 
the king of Moab, was a sheep-master; and he rendered unto the king 
of Israel the wool of a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand 
rams. But it came to pass when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab 
rebelled against the king of Israel; and king Jehoram went out of 
Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel. And he sent unto 
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, saying: The king of Moab hath rebelled 
against me; will you go with me against Moab to battle? And he said: 
I will go; I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as 
thy horses. Which way shall we go up? And he answered: The way 
of the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went, and the king 
of Judah and the king of Edom. And they made a circuit of seven 

1E wrote during the reign of Jeroboam IJ. when it seemed probable that he would 
reunite the tribes and regain the territory lost since the time of Solomon. The Chronicler, 


writing in the fourth century s.c. makes no mention of him at all, but attributes his 
conquests to his father, Joash. 


244 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


days’ journey. And there was no water for the host, nor for the beasts 
that followed them. 

And the king of Israel said: Alas! for Yahweh hath called these 
three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of the king of 
Moab. But Jehoshaphat said: Is there not a prophet here of Yahweh, 
that we may inquire of Yahweh by him? And one of the servants 
of the king of Israel said: Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who 
poured water on the hands of the prophet Elijah. And Jehoshaphat 
said: The word of Yahweh is with him. So the king of Israel and 
Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. 

And Elisha said unto the king of Israel: What have I to do with 
thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of 
thy mother. And the King of Israel answered him: Nay, for Yahweh 
hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand 
of Moab. And Elisha said: As Yahweh liveth, before whom I stand, 
surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the 
king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now, 
bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, 
that the hand of Yahweh came upon him. And he said: Thus saith 
Yahweh: Make this valley full of trenches. For thus saith Yahweh: 
Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall 
be filled with water, and ye shall drink, both ye and your cattle. And 
this is but a light thing in the hand of Yahweh; He will also deliver 
the Moabites into your hand. And ye shall smite every fortified city 
and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all foun- 
tains of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. 

And it came to pass in the morning, about the time of making the 
offering, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was 
filled with water. 

Now when the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight 
against them, they gathered themselves together, all that were able 
to put on armor and upward, and stood on the border. And they rose 
up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water; and the 
Moabites saw the water, some way off, as red as blood; and they said: 
This is blood; the kings have surely fought together, and they have 
smitten every man his fellow. Now then, Moab, to the spoil! But 
when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote 
the Moabites, so that they fled before them. And they smote the land, 
even Moab, mightily. And they beat down the cities; and on every 
good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it. And 
they stopped all the fountains of water, and felled all the good trees 
until there was left only Kir- Haresheth with the stones of the wall : 
thereof; so the slingers encompassed it and smote it. 

And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for 
him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew sword to break 
through unto the king of Edom; but they could not. Then he took his 
eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for 
a burnt-offering upon the wall, 


1The ‘“‘Moabite stone’, found at Dibhan in 1868, gives king Mesha’s version of this 
battle. The first tumultuous onslaught, recorded by the Israelites, seems to have been a 
great success for them, which they naturally magnify. But the tide turned after Mesha 
sacrificed his son, which sacrifice, he, as naturally, did not record. The result was that the 
Moabites, believing that their god would now give them success, and also having had time 


to put their forces in array, brought the “great wrath’’ on Israel, which Mehsa details in - 


full, and which compelled the retirement of Israel. There is no reason to doubt the 
sacrifice of Mesha’s first-born, which was a recognized rite in Moab, and also in Canaan, 
until Abraham’s reyolt from it, as shown in E’s account of the Sacrifice of Isaac. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 245 


And there came great wrath upon Israel. And they departed from 
him, and returned to their own land. ; 

Now it came to pass after this, that the king of Aram gathered all 
his host and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great 
famine in Samaria; and behold, they besieged it until an ass’s head 
was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab 
of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king was passing 
upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying: Help, my lord, 
O king! And the king said unto her: If Yahweh do not help thee, 
whence shall I help thee? out of the threshing-floor, or out of the 
wine-press? And the king said unto her: What aileth thee? And 
she answered: This woman said unto me: Give thy son, that we may 
eat him to-day; and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my 
son, and did eat him. And I said unto her on the next day: Give thy 
son, that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son. And it came to 
pass when the king had heard the words of the woman, that he rent 
his clothes—now he was passing by upon the wall—and the people 
looked, and lo, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said: 
God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat 
shall stand upon him this day. 

But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him. And the 
king sent a man from before him; but ere the messenger came to him, 
he said to the elders: See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to 
take away my head? Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, 
and hold the door fast against him; is not the sound of his master’s 
feet behind him? And while he yet talked, behold, the messenger came 
down unto him. And he said: [The king saith], Behold, this evil is of 
Yahweh; why should I wait any longer? 

And Elisha said: Hear ye the word of Yahweh: To-morrow about 
this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two 
measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. Then the 
captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and 
said: Behold, if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, might this 
thing be? And he answered: Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, 
but shalt not eat thereof. 

Now there were four leprous men that sat at the entrance of the 
gates, and they said one to another: Why sit we here until we die? 
If we say, we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, 
and we shall die there; and if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore 
come, and let us fall unto the host of the Arameans; if they save us 
alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. And they 
rose up in the twilight to go unto the camp of the Arameans; and when 
they were come to the outermost part of the camp, behold, there was 
no man there. For Yahweh had made the host of the Arameans to 
hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great 
host; and they said one to another: Lo, the king of Israel hath hired 
against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians, to 
come unto us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left 
their tents and their horses and their asses, even the camp as it was, 
and fled for their life. And when those lepers came to the outermost 
part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, 
and carried thence silver and gold and raiment, and went and hid it; 
and they came back, and entered into another tent and carried thence 
also, and went and hid it. 

Then they said one to another: We do not well; this day is a day 


246 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


of good tidings, and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning 
light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore, let us go and tell 
the king’s household. So they came and called unto the porters of 
the city; and they told them, saying: We came to the camp of the 
Arameans, and behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, 
but the horses tied and the asses tied, and the tenfs as they were. 
And the porters called, and they told it to the king’s household within. 
And the king arose in the night, and said unto his. servants: I will now 
tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we are 
hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves 
in the field, saying: When they come out of the city, we shall take 
them alive, and get into the city. And one of his servants answered 
and said: Let some take, I pray thee, one of the horses that remain, 
which are left in the city—behold, they are as all the multitude of 
Israel that are consumed—and let us send and see. They took there- 
fore two chariots with horses; and the king sent after the host of the 
Arameans, saying: Go and see. And they went after them unto the 
Jordan; and lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels which 
the Arameans had cast away in their haste. And the messengers 
returned and told the king. 

And the people went out and plundered the camp of the Aramezans. 
So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of 
barley for a shekel, according’to the word of Yahweh. And the king 
appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of 
the gate; and the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died, as 
the man of God had said who spake when the king came down to him. 
And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying: 
Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for 
a shekel shall be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria; 
and that captain answered the man of God, and said: Now behold, 
if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? 
and he said: Behold, fhou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not 
eat thereof; even so it came to pass unto him; for the people trod 
upon him in the gate and he died. 

Now Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-Hadad the king of Aram 
was sick, and it was told him, saying: The man of God is come hither. 
And the king said to Hazael: Take a present in thy hand, and go meet 
the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying: Shall I 
recover of this sickness? So Hazael went to meet him, and he took a 
present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ 
burden, and came and stood before him, and said: Thy son Ben-Hadad, 
king of Aram, hath sent me unto thee, saying: Shall I recover of this 
sickness? And Elisha said unto him: Go, say unto him: Thou shalt 
surely recover; howbeit, Yahweh hath shown me that he shall surely 
die. And he settled his countenance steadfastly upon him, until he 
was ashamed. And the man of God wept. And Hazael said: Why 
weepeth, my lord? And he answered: Because I know the evil that 
thou wilt do unto the Children of Israel; their strongholds wilt thou 
set on fire, their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash 
in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child. And 
Hazael said: But what! Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this 
great thing? And Elisha answered: Yahweh hath shown me that thou 
shalt be king over Aram. 

Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said 
unto him: What said Elisha unto thee? And he answered: He told 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 247 


me that thou wouldest surely recover. And it came to pass on the 
morrow, that he took the coverlet and dipped it in water, and 
spread it on his face, so that he died. And Hazael reigned in his 
stead. 

And Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and 
said unto him: Gird up thy loins, and take this vial of oil in thy 
hand, and go to Ramoth-Gilead. And when thou comest thither, look 
out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in 
and make him rise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an 
inner chamber. Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, 
and say: Thus saith Yahweh: I have anointed thee king over Israel. 
Then open the door and flee, and tarry not. So the young man, even 
the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth-Gilead. And when he 
came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting; and he said: I have 
an errand unto thee, O captain. And Jehu said: Unto which of us 
all? And he said: Unto thee, O captain. And he arose and went into 
the house. And he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him: 
Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: I have anointed thee king 
over the people of Yahweh, even over Israel. And thou shal€ smite 
the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of My 
servants the prophets, and the blood of the servants of Yahweh at 
the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and 
I will cut off from Ahab every man-child, and him that is shut up and 
him that is left at large in Israel. And I will make the house of Ahab 
like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of 
Baasha the son of Ahijah. And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion 
of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the 
door and fled. 

Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord; and one said 
unto him: Is all well? And he said unto them: Ye know the man 
and what his talk was. And they said: It is false; tell us now. And 
he said: Thus and thus spake he unto me, saying: Thus saith Yahweh: 
I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then they hastened and took 
every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, 
and blew the horn, saying: Jehu is king! 

So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against 
Joram. 

Now Joram had been guarding Ramoth-Gilead, he and all Israel, 
because of Hazael king of Aram; but king Joram was returned to be 
healed in Jezreel of the wound which the Arameans had given him, 
when he fought with Hazael, king of Aram. And Jehu said: If this 
be your mind, then let none escape and go forth out of the city, to go 
to tell it in Jezreel. So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, 
for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah, king of Judah, was come down 
to see Joram. 

Now the watchman stood on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the 
company of Jehu as he came, and said: I see a company. And Joram 
said: Take a horseman and send to meet them, and let him say: Is 
it peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said: 
Thus saith the king: Is it peace? And Jehu said: What hast thou 
to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, say- 
ing: The messenger came to them, but he cometh not back. Then he 
sent out a second on horseback, who came to them and said: Thus saith 
the king: Is it peace? And Jehu answered: What hast thou to do 
with peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying: He 


248 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


came even unto them, and cometh not back; and the driving is like the 
driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously. 

And Joram said: Make ready. And they made ready his chariot. 
And Joram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, king of Judah, went out to 
meet Jehu, each in his chariots; and they went out to meet Jehu and 
found him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. And it came to 
pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said: Is it peace, Jehu? And he 
answered: What peace, so long as the harlotries of thy mother Jezebel 
and her witchecrafts are so many? And Joram turned his hands and 
fled, and said to Ahaziah: Treachery, O Ahaziah! And Jehu drew his 
bow with his full strength, and smote Joram between his arms; and 
the arrow went out at his heart, and he sank down in his chariot. Then 
said he to Bidkar his captain: Take up and cast him into the portion 
of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how that, when 
I and thou rode after Ahab his father, Yahweh pronounced this oracle 
upon him: Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and 
the blood of his sons, saith Yahweh; and I will requite them in this 
plot, saith Yahweh. Now therefore, take and cast him into this plot 
of ground, according to the word of Yahweh. 

But when Ahaziah, the king of Judah, saw this, he fled by the way 
of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said: Smite 
him also in the chariot. And they did so at the ascent of Gur which 
is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants 
carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in the sepulchre 
with his fathers in the city of David. 

Now when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she 
painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at a window. 
And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said: Had Zimri peace, who 
slew his master? And he lifted up his face to the window, and said: 
Who is on my side, who? And there looked out on him two or three 
servants. And he said: Throw her down. So they threw her down, 
and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses; 
and she was trodden underfoot. And when he was come in, he did 
eat and drink; then he said: Look now after this cursed woman and 
bury her, for she is a king’s daughter. And they went to bury her; 
but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the 
palms of her hands. Wherefore they came back and told him. And 
he said. This is the word of Yahweh, which He spake by His servant 
Elijah the Tishbite, saying: In the portion of Jezreel shall the dogs 
eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung 
upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that none shall say: 
This is Jezebel. 

Now Ahab had seventy kinsfolk in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters 
and sent to Samaria unto the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders and 
them that brought up the sons of Ahab, saying: And now, as soon as 
this letter cometh to you, seeing your master’s sons are with you, and 
there are with you chariots and horses, fortified cities also, and armor; 
look ye out the best and meetest of your master’s sons, and set him 
on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s house. But they 
were exceedingly afraid, and said: Behold, the two kings stood not 
before him; how then shall we stand? And he that was over the house- 
hold, and he that was over the city, the elders also and they that 
brought up the children, sent to Jehu, saying: We are thy servants, 
and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any man king; 
do that which is good in thine eyes. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 249 


Then he wrote a second time to them, saying: If ye be on my side, 
and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men 
your master’s sons, and come to me by to-morrow this time. Now the 
king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city 
who brought them up. And it came to pass, when the letter came to 
them, that they took the king’s sons and slew them, even seventy 
persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him in 
Jezreel. And there came a messenger and told him, saying: They 
have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said: Lay ye them 
in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning. And it 
came to pass in the morning, that he went out and stood, and said to 
all the people: Ye are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my 
master, and slew him; but who smote all these? Know now that there 
shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of Yahweh, which Yahweh 
spake concerning the house of Ahab; for Yahweh hath done that which 
He spake by His servant Elijah. 

So Jehu smote all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, 
and all his great men and his familiar friends, and his priests, until 
there was left him none remaining. 

And he arose and departed, and went to Samaria. And as he was 
at the shearing-house of the shepherds in the way, Jehu met the 
brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and said: Who are ye? And they 
answered: We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute 
the children of the king and of the queen. And he said: Take them 
alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the 
shearing-house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them. 

And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the 
son of Rechab; and he saluted him, and said to him: Is thy heart right, 
as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered: It is. If it 
be, said he, give me thy hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took 
him up to him into the chariot. And he said: Come with me, and see 
my zeal for Yahweh. So he made him ride in his chariot. And when 
he came to Samaria, he smote all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, 
till he had destroyed him, according unto the word of Yahweh which 
He spake to Elijah. 

And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them: 
Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much. Now there- 
fore, call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshippers and all 
his priests; let none be wanting; for I have a great sacrifice to make 
to Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did 
it in subtlety, to the intent that he might destroy the worshipers 
of Baal. 

And Jehu said: Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they 
proclaimed it. And Jehu sent through all Israel, and all the worshipers 
of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And they 
came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one 
end to the other. And he said to him that was over the vestry: Bring 
forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them 
forth vestments. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into 
the house of Baal; and he said unto the worshippers of Baal: Search, 
and look that there be here with you none of the servants of Yahweh; 
but the worshipers of Baal only. And they went in to offer sacrifice 
and burnt-offerings. Now Jehu had appointed him fourscore men with- 
out, and said: If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, 
his life shall be for the life of him, 


250 THE AUTHENTC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the 
burnt-offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains: Go in 
and slay them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge 
of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went 
to the city of the house of Baal. And they brought forth the pillars 
that were in the house of Baal, and burned them. And they broke 
down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal and made 
it a draught-house unto this day. 

Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Howbeit, from the sins of 
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin,—from them 
Jehu departed not, the golden calves that were in Beth-el and that were 
in Dan. But Yahweh said unto Jehu: Because thou hast done well 
in executing that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast done unto the 
house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, thy sons of the 
fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. 

In those days Yahweh began to cut Israel short; and Hazael smote 
them in all the borders of Israel; from the Jordan eastward, and all the 
land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, 
from Aroer which is by the valley of Arnon,—even Gilead and Bashan. 
And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria; and 
Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead. 

And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and He de- 
livered them into the hand of Hazael, king of Aram, and into the hand 
of Ben-Hadad his son continually. And Jehoahaz besought Yahweh, and 
Yahweh hearkened unto him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, how 
that the king of Aram oppressed them. And Yahweh gave Israel a de- 
liverer, so that they went out from under the hand of the Arameans; 
and the Israelites dwelt in their tents, as aforetime. Neither was there 
left to Jehoahaz of the people but fifty horsemen and ten chariots, and 
ten thousand footmen; for the king of Aram destroyed them, and made 
them as the dust in threshing. And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; 
and they buried him in Samaria, and Joash his son reigned in his stead. 

Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he was to die; 
and Joash, the king of Israel, came down to him, and wept over him, 
and said: My father, my father! the chariots of Israel and the horsemen 
thereof!* And Elisha said unto him: Take bow and arrows; and he 
took unto him bow and arrows. And he said unto the king of Israel: 
Put thy hand upon the bow; and he put his hand upon it. And Elisha 
laid his hands upon the king’s hands. And he said: Open the window 
outward; and he opened it. Then Elisha said: Shoot; and he shot. 
And he said: Yahweh’s arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory 
against Aram; for thou shalt smite the Arameans in Aphek, till thou 
have consumed them. And he said: Take the arrows; and he took 
them. And he said unto the king of Israel: Smite upon the ground; 
and he smote thrice and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with 
him, and cried: Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then 
hadst thou smitten Aram till thou hadst consumed it; whereas now, thou 
will smite Aram but thrice. 

And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moab- 
ites used to invade the land at the coming in of the year. And it came 
to pass, as they were burying a man, that behold, they spied a band; 
and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and as soon as the 
man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet. 


1 Apparently, a popular expression of grief for the loss of a man of distinguished . 
power. It may have been the figure on which was based the tradition of the ascension 


of Elijah. 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 2501 


Now Hazael, king of Aram, had oppressed Israel all the days of 
Jehoahaz. But Yahweh was gracious unto them, and had compassion 
upon them, and had respect unto them, because of his covenant with 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and would not destroy them; neither hath 
He cast them from His presence until now. So Hazael, king of Aram, 
died; and Ben-Hadad, his son, reigned in his stead. And Jehoash,’? the 
son of Jehoahaz, took again out of the hand of Ben-Hadad, the son of 
Hazael, the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz, his 
father, by war. Three times did Joash smite him, and recover the cities 
of Israel. 


XVIII 
HOW JEHOASH CAME TO THE THRONE IN JUDAH 


Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and queen-mother in Judah, tries to destroy 
all the rest of David’s line; but Jehoash, her youngest grandson is 
saved. Judah endures her rule six years; then the high-priest pro- 
claims Jehoash king, and Athaliah is slain. He rules well; but 
to save his people from war pays tribute to Hazael, king of Aram. 
His successor Amaziah, declares war against Jehoash, his contem- 
porary in Israel, but is overpowered and Jerusalem is taken. His 
people revolt, and put his son Azariah (Uzziah) on the throne. At 
the same time, Jeroboam II, the last great king of Israel, is ruling. 
itt OO XT iat oe ieee eX Vy ie, 014, 10-17, 10721, 2G, sone te) 


Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was 
dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehosheba, the 
daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, 
and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even 
him and his nurse, and hid him in her bedchamber from Athaliah, so 
that he was not slain. And he was with her, hid in the House of Yahweh 
for six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land. 

Now in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over 
hundreds of the Carites and of the Guards, and brought them into the 
house of Yahweh; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath 
of them in the House of Yahweh, and he showed them the king’s son. 
And he commanded them, saying: This is the thing that ye shall do; 
a third part of you, that come in on the sabbath and that keep the 
watch of the king’s house, (now another third part was at the gate Sur, 
and another third part at the gate behind the guard), they shall keep 
the watch of the house and be a barrier. And the other two parts of 
you, even of all that go forth on the sabbath, shall keep the watch of 
the House of Yahweh about the king. And ye shall compass the king 
round about, every man with his weapon in his hand; and he that 
cometh within the ranks, let him be slain; and be ye with the king, 
when he goeth out and when he cometh in. 

And the captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada 
the priest commanded; and they took every man his men, those that 
were to come in on the sabbath with those that were to go out on the 
sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. And the priest delivered to 
the captains over hundreds king David’s spears and shields that were 
in the house of Yahweh. And the guard stood, every man with his 


1 The names Joash and Joram are frequently given also as Jehoash and Jehoram. 


252 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side 
of the house, along by the altar and the house. 

Then he brought out the king’s son and put upon him the crown, 
and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed 
him; and they clapped their hands, and said: Long live the king! 

Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and the people, 
she came to the people into the House of Yahweh. And she looked, and 
behold! the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the captains 
and the trumpeters by the king; and all the people of the land were 
rejoicing, and they blew with trumpets. And Athaliah rent her clothes, 
and cried: Treason, treason! And Jehoiada the priest commanded the 
captains of hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them: Have 
her forth between the ranks; and him that followeth her, kill with the 
sword. For the priest had said: Let her not be slain in the House of 
Yahweh. And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by 
which the horses came into the king’s house; and there she was slain. 

And Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and the king and 
the people, that they should be Yahweh’s people; between the king 
also and the people. And all the people of the land went to the house 
of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in 
pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. 
And the priest appointed officers over the House of Yahweh. And he 
took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and 
all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the 
House of Yahweh, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the 
king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. And all the people 
of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet; and they slew Athaliah by 
the sword by the king’s house. 

Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign. And Jehoash 
did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh all his days that 
Jehoiada the priest instructed him. And Jehoash said to the priests: 
All the money of the dedicated things which is brought to the House 
of Yahweh in current money; the money for which each man is rated, 
and all the money that cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the 
House of Yahweh, let the priests take it to them, every man from him 
who bestoweth it upon him; and they shall repair the breaches of the 
house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it was so, that in 
the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not re- 
paired the breaches of the house. Then king Jehoash called for 
Jehoiada the priest and for the other priests, and said unto them: 
Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? Now therefore, receive 
ye no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches 
of the house. And the priests consented to receive no more money 
of the people, neither repair the breaches of the house. 

Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in the lid 
of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into 
the House of Yahweh; and the priests that kept the door put therein 
all the money brought into the house of Yahweh. And it was so, 
that, when they saw there was much money in the chest, the king’s 
scribe and the high priest came up, and they counted and put up in 
bags the money that was found in the house of Yahweh. And they 
gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of them that had 
the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and they paid it out to the 
carpenters and builders and wrought upon the House of Yahweh, and 
to masons and hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone 


NOTABLE DEEDS OF ISRAEL’S HEROES 253 


to repair the breaches of the House of Yahweh, and for all that was 
laid out for the house to repair it. Howbeit, there were not made for 
the House of Yahweh bowls of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any ves- 
sels of gold or vessels of silver, out of the money that was brought 
into the House of Yahweh; but they gave that to the workmen, and 
repaired therewith the House of Yahweh. Moreover, they reckoned 
not with the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give 
to them that did the work, for they dealt faithfully. The trespass- 
money and sin-money was not brought into the house of Yahweh; it 
was the priests’. 

Then Hazael, king of Aram, went up and fought against Gath, and 
took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. And Jehoash, 
king of Judah, took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat and 
Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his 
own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures 
of the House of Yahweh, and in the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael, 
king of Aram; and he went away from Jerusalem. 

Then his servants arose and made a conspiracy and slew Joash in 
the house of Millo, that goeth down to Silla. For Jozachar the son of 
Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him; 
and he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of 
David; and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead. He was twenty and 
five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine 
years in Jerusalem. And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was 
confirmed in his hand, that he slew his servants who had slain the 
king his father; but the children of the murderers he slew not (according 
to the law of Moses wherein Yahweh commanded, saying: The fathers 
shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to 
death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his 
own sins.) * He slew of Edom in the valley of Salt ten thousand, and 
took Sela by war, and called the name of it Joktheel. 

Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, king of Israel, saying: 
Come, let us look one another in the face. And Jehoash, king of Israel, 
sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying: The thistle that was in Lebanon 
sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying: Give thy daughter to 
my son to wife; and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, 
and trod down the thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom and thine 
heart hath lifted thee up. Glory therein, and stay at home. For why 
shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, thou and 
Judah with thee? 

But Amaziah would not hear. Therefore Jehoash, king of Israel, 
went up; and he and Amaziah looked one another in the face at Beth- 
Shemesh, which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the worse 
before Israel; and they fled every man to their tents. 

And Jehoash, king of Israel,-took Amaziah, king of Judah, at Beth- 
Shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem 
from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits. 
And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found 
in the House of Yahweh and the treasures that were in the king’s house, 
and hostages also, and returned to Samaria. And Joash slept with his 
fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jero- 
boam, his son, reigned in his stead. 

1 The words in parenthesis are probably a late addition. The custom of the day forbade 


the alleging of such a reason, however humane the individual might have been. 


; ? This conquest may account somewhat for the Chronicler’s disregard of Jeroboam II. 
while giving high honor to his father. 


254 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived after the death 
of Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, fifteen years. Then they 
made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. 
But they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. And they 
brought him upon horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem, with his 
fathers in the city of David. And all the people of Judah took Azariah, 
who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his 
father Amaziah. . 

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, 
Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign. He restored the 
border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath unto the sea of the 
Arabah; according to the word of Yahweh, the God of Israel, which He 
spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet 
who was of Gath-Hepher. For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that 
it was very bitter; for there was not any left, shut up nor at large, to 
be a helper for Israel. But Yahweh had not said that He would blot 
out the name of Israel from under Heaven; and He saved them by the 
hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash.* 

1 With this statement of the territory already recovered for Israel by Jeroboam II. 


and his exultant acclaim of the young king as the future saviour of the whole nation, the 
Ephraimite author E closes his roll of the Heroes of Israel. 








sd oe 








THE 


TWIN KINGDOMS 
OF 


JUDAH & ISRAEL ~ 


Cc 750 B C ais 
Rh he Shier: a 
HE IMs 


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Se 


un 
Spt 


A 


3 
Fay) 


Hye 


yi 








THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET AMOS 


I. THE JUDGMENT TO COME UPON THE SURROUNDING NATIONS, 
BUT CHIEFLY UPON GUILTY ISRAEL 


(Am, i, 3-15; ii, 1-3, 6-16)? 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
For three offenses of Damascus and for four, I will not revoke it, 
Because they have harrowed Gilead with harrows of iron. 

So I will send fire into the House of Hazael 

That shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad; 
Will break the bar of Damascus and cut off 

The dweller in Bikath-Aven, 

And him that holdeth the sceptre from Beth-eden; 

And the people of Aram shall go into exile unto Kir, saith Yahweh. 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
For three offenses of Gaza and for four, I will not revoke it, 
Because they bore into exile a whole people — to deliver them to Edom. 

So I will send fire upon the wall of Gaza 

And it shall devour the palaces thereof; 

I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod 

And him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon; 
I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant 

Of the Philistines shall perish, saith Yahweh. 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
For three offenses of Tyre and for four, I will not revoke it, 
Because they delivered up a whole captivity unto Edom, 
And remembered not the brotherly covenant. 
So I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, 
And it shall devour the palaces thereof. 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
For three offenses of Edom and for four, I will not revoke it, 
Because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off pity, 
And his anger did tear perpetually 
And he kept his wrath for ever. 
So I will send fire upon Teman; it shall devour 
The palaces of Bozrah. 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
For three offenses of Ammon and for four, I will not revoke it, 
Because they have ripped up in Gilead the pregnant women 
That they might enlarge their borders. 
So I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah 
And it shall devour the palaces thereof, 
With shouting in the day of battle, 
With a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; 
And their king shall go into exile, he and the princes 
Together, saith Yahweh. 
1Superscription by P (ch. i, 1). ‘‘The words of Amos who was among the herdsmen 
of Tekoa which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the 
days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.” Verse 
2a is borrowed by P from Joel iv, 16a; and 2b is paraphrased from Joel 10 & 12, where 
they will be found. They are therefore here omitted. 


259 


256 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
For three offenses of Moab and for four, I will not revoke it, 
Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom, desecrating the dead. 
So I will send fire upon Moab; it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth. 
I will cut off the ruler from their midst and will slay 
All his nobles with him, saith Yahweh. 


Thus saith Yahweh: 


For three offenses of Israel and for four, I will not revoke it, 
Because they sell the righteous for silver, the needy for a pair of shoes; 
That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, 


And turn aside the way of the humble. 
A man and his father go in to the same maid, to profane My holy name; 
They lie down beside every altar upon clothes taken in pledge, 
And in the house of their god they drink the wine of the fined. 


Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, 
Whose height was like that of cedars; he was strong as the oaks. 
Yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. 

I brought you out of the land of Egypt 

And led you forty years in the wilderness, 

To possess the land of the Amorites. 
[ raised up of your sons for prophets, of your youth for Nazarites. 

Is it not even thus, O Children of Israel? saith Yahweh. 


But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, 
Ye commanded the prophets: Prophesy not! 
Behold, I will make your place to groan 
As a cart groans that is full of sheaves. 
Flight shall not avail the swift, the strong shall not use his strength, 
The swift of foot shall not escape, nor shall he that rideth a horse. 
Nor shall the warrior deliver himself, nor shall he that handleth the bow. | 
The courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, 
saith Yahweh. 


II. THE COMING JUDGMENT WILL BE SURE AND THOROUGH 
(Amos iii, 1-15) 
Hear this word that Yahweh hath spoken against you, O Children 


of Israel, against the whole family which I brought out of the land of 
Kgypt, saying: 


You only have I known of all the families of the earth, 
Therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities. 

Will two walk together except they be agreed? 
Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? 
Will a lion-cub cry from his den if he have taken nothing? 
Will a bird fall into a snare if there is no bait set for it? 
Shall the trumpet blare in the city and people not be afraid? 
Shall evil befall a city and Yahweh hath not done it? 
Surely Yahweh will do nothing that He doth not reveal 

His purpose unto His servants, the Prophets! 

The lion hath roared; who will not fear? 

The God Yahweh has spoken; who can but prophesy? 


Proclaim on the palaces of Ashdod, and over the palaces of Egypt; 

Gather ye on the mount of Samaria and see the manifold tumults 
And the oppressions in their midst; 

For they know not how to do right who store up violence and robbery 
In their palaces, saith Yahweh. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET AMOS 257 


Therefore thus saith the God Yahweh: 
Lo, an enemy surrounds the land; 
And he shall strip thee of thy strength; 
Thy palaces shall be plundered. 
As the shepherd rescueth out of the mouth of the lion 
Two legs or a piece of an ear, 
So shall the dwellers in Samaria escape 
With the corner of a couch or the leg of a bed. 


Hear ye and testify 
Saith the God Yahweh, 
In the day that I shall visit 
I will visit the altars of Bethel; 
Shall fall to earth; 
Together with the winter-house. 


The houses of ivory shall perish, 


against the house of Jacob! 
the militant God: 

upon Israel his transgressions, 
the horns of the altar 


will I smite the summer-house; 
the great houses be swept away, 
saith Yahweh. 


III. AGAINST THE WOMEN OF SAMARIA 
(Amos iv, 4-3) 


Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, 


ho dwell in the mount of Samaria; 


Ye that oppress the poor, 


That say to your husbands: Bring, 


that crush the needy; 
that we may feast! 


The God Yahweh hath sworn by His holiness: 
Lo, surely, the days shall come upon you 


That ye shall be drawn with hooks, 


the last of you with fish-hooks, 


And ye shall go out at the breaches, every woman straight before her, 
And ye shall be cast into Harmon, saith Yahweh. 


‘TV. ISRAEL’S RELIANCE UPON RITES AND CEREMONIES 
WHILE BLIND TO THE PURPOSE OF GoD’s JUDGMENT 


(Amos iv, 4-15) 
Come to Bethel and transgress! 


To Gilgal, 


Bring your sacrifices in the morning, 


Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving 


Proclaim your free-will offerings! 


and multiply transgression! 


your tithes after three days! 

of that which is leavened; 

so love ye to do, ye Israelites, 
said the God Yahweh. 


But I have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, 
And lack of bread in all your palaces; 
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Yahweh. 


I have also withheld from you the rain, 
When there were yet three months to harvest 
So that two or three cities wandered to one to drink water, 


And were not satisfied. 


Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Yahweh. 


I smote you with blasting and mildew, 
Laying waste your gardens and vineyards, 

And your fig-trees and your olive-trees did the palmer-worm devour; 
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Yahweh, 


258 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt; 
Your youths have I slain with the sword 
And I have carried away your horses; 

I have made the stench of your camps come up even unto your nostrils 
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Yahweh. 


I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, 
And ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning; 
Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith Yahweh. 


Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel! 
For this will I do unto thee; Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel! 


V. A LAMENT FOR THE IMMINENT DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL AND A 
PLEADING TO HER TO REPENT 


(Amos v, 1-6, 10-17) 


O House of Israel, 
Hear the word which I take up,— a lamentation over you. 
The Virgin of Israel is fallen, she shall rise no more; 
She is cast down upon her land, there is none to take her up. 
For thus saith the God Yahweh: 
The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left; 
And that which went forth a hundred shall have but ten left. 


For thus saith Yahweh: 
Seek ye Me and live, but seek not Bethel nor enter Gilgal, 
And pass not to Beersheba; 
For Gilgal shall go into exile and Bethel shall come to naught. 
Seek Yahweh and live, lest He cast fire on the House of Joseph; 
Lest it devour, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. 


Ye who turn justice to gall and cast righteousness to the ground, 
That hate him that reproveth in the gate, and abhor him 
That speaketh uprightly! 
Lo, because ye trample on the poor and exact of him loads of grain; 
Ye have built houses of stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; 
Pleasant vineyards ye plant, but wine of them shall ye not drink. 
For I know how manifold are your transgressions 
And how great are your sins, 
Ye that afflict the just, and take a bribe, 
And thrust aside the needy in the gate. 
Wherefore the prudent in such a time will keep silence 
For surely the time is evil. 


Seek good and not evil, that ye may live; 
That Yahweh, the militant God, may be with you, as ye have said. 
Hate evil and love the good, and establish justice in the gate; 
It may be that Yahweh Sabaoth will be gracious 
To the remnant of Joseph. 
Therefore thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth: 
In all the streets shall be wailing, on the highways the cry, Alas! 
They shall call the husbandman to mourn, 
And to wailing those skilled in lamentation; 
In all vineyards shall there be mourning; for through thy midst 
Shall I pass, saith Yahweh. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET AMOS 259 


VI. THE DAY OF YAHWEH SHALL BE A DAY OF RETRIBUTION 
(Amos v, 18-27; vi, 1-14) 


Woe unto you that desire the Day of Yahweh! 
Why would ye have the Day of Yahweh? 
Darkness it shall be, and not light. 
As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; 
Or went into a house, and leaned his hand on the wall, 
And a serpent bit him. 
Shall not the day of Yahweh 


be darkness and not light? 
Even very dark, 


and no brightness in it? 


I hate, I despise your feasts, I take no delight 
In your solemn assemblies; 
Yea, though ye offer burnt-offerings and your meal-offerings 
I will not accept them. 
Neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. 
ake thou away from Me __ the noise of thy songs, 
And let Menot hear the melody of thy psalteries; 
But let Justice well up as spring-waters, 
And Righteousness as a mighty stream. 


Did ye offer Me sacrifices in the wilderness 
For forty years, O House of Israel? 
But now ye shall take up the tents of your king and the image 
Of your god which ye have made for yourselves, 
And [I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, 


Saith Yahweh. 


Woe to those that are at ease in Zion, 
That are secure in the mount of Samaria! 
The notable men of the first of the nations, 
To whom the House of Israel resort, 
Ye that put off the evil day, yet create a rule of violence! 


They lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves on their couches 
And eat. the lambs of the flock and calves from the inner stall; 
That thrum on the psaltery and devise for themselves 
Instruments of music; 
That drink wine by bowlfuls and with the finest of oils 
Anoint themselves. 


But now shall they go captive with the first that go into captivity; 
The revelry of the sprawlers shall come to an end. 


The God Yahweh hath sworn by Himself, saith Yahweh Sabaoth: 
I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his palaces; 
I will deliver up the city with all that is therein; 
For behold, Yahweh commandeth; 
He will smite the great house into splinters, 
And the little ones into chips. 


Do horses run upon crags? Do men plough there with oxen, 
That ye have turned justice into gall 
And the fruit of righteousness into wormwood? 
Ye that rejoice in a thing of naught, that say: By our own strength 
Have we not taken horns? 


Verily, I am raising against you a nation, 
And they shall oppress you, O Israel, 
From the entering in of Hamath even to the brook of the Arabah, 
Saith Yahweh, the Militant God. 


260 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


VII. Two ApoLtogues Upon RECENTLY AVERTED MISFORTUNES 
(Amos vii, 1-3; 4-6) 


Thus Yahweh showed unto me, and behold, He was forming locusts 
When growth of late grass begins, after the King’s sowings; 
Already locusts had made an end of all the growths of the land. 
And I said: O Yahweh, forgive, I beseech Thee; 
How shall Jacob stand? for he is small. 
Yahweh repented concerning it. It shall not be, said Yahweh. 


Thus Yahweh showed unto me and behold, he was calling 
For judgment by fire; 
And it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten the land. 
And I said: O Yahweh, cease, I pray Thee! How shall Jacob stand? 
For he is small. 
He relented also concerning this. This too shall not be, 
said Yahweh. 


VIII A THIRD APOLOGUE. THE DOOM OF ISRAEL IS SEALED 
(Amos vii, 7-9) 


Then He showed me, and behold, Yahweh stood by a wall, a plumb- 
line in His hand. And Yahweh said unto me: Amos! what seest thou? 
And I said: A plumb-line. Then said Yahweh: 

Lo, a plumb-line will I set 
In the midst of My people Israel. No more will I parden them. 
The high places of Isaac shall be desolate 
And the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; 
And I will rise up with a sword against 
The House of Jeroboam. 


IX. AMAZIAH, PRIEST OF BETHEL, IS ROUSED TO ACTION 
AGAINST THIS JUDAEAN PROPHET 


(Amos vii, 10-17) 


Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, 
saying: Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house 
of Israel; the land is not able to bear his words. For thus Amos saith: 
Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away 
captive out of the land. 

Then Amaziah said unto Amos: O thou Seer, go, flee away into the 
land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there; but prophesy no 
more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and the king’s residence. 

Then Amos answered and said unto Amaziah: I was no prophet, 
neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman and a dresser of 
sycamore trees. But Yahweh called me from following the flock; and 
Yahweh said unto me: Go, prophesy unto My people, Israel. Now, 
therefore, hear the word of Yahweh. Thou sayest: Prophesy not 
against Israel, and preach not against the House of Isaac. Therefore 
thus saith Yahweh: 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET AMOS 261 


Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, 


thy sons and daughters 


Shall fall by the sword. 


Thy land shall be divided by line, 


and thou shalt die 


In an unclean land; 


And Israel shall surely be led away 


captive from his land. 


X. A VISION AND A PROPHECY, THE TIME Is AT HAND. 
(Amos viii, 1-5, 7-10, 14) 


Thus the God Yahweh showed me, and lo, a basket of summer fruit. 
And He said: Amos, what seest thou? And I said: A basket of summer 


fruit. Then said Yahweh: 


The time is come upon My people Israel. 


I will not pardon them any more. 


In that day the songs 


f the palace shall be wailings, saith Yahweh Sabaoth. 


O 
The dead bodies shall be many; 


in all places shall be silence, 


Hear this, O ye that trample the needy, 
And destroy the poor of the land; 
That say: When will the new moon be gone, 


That we may sell grain? 


And the sabbath, that we may set forth grain, 
Making the ephah small, the shekel great, 
And falsifying the balances of deceit? 


Yahweh hath sworn by the pride of Jacob: 


Never shall I forget any of their works. 


Shall not the land 


Tremble for this, and every one that dwelleth therein? 
Shall not the whole of it rise as the Nile, be troubled and sink, 


Like the river of Egypt? 


It shall come to pass that day 
To go down at noon; 
In the clear day, 


that I will make the sun 
and I will darken the earth 
saith Yahweh. 


I will turn your feasts into mournings, and your songs 


Into lamentations; 
I will put sackcloth on all loins, 
And I will make the mourning 


and baldness on every head, 
as mourning for an only son; 


And the end thereof as a bitter day. 


They that swear by the sin of Samaria, 


And say: As thy go 


d, O Dan, liveth!! 


And: As the way of Beersheba liveth! shall fall to rise no more. 


XI. THE VISION OF THE END 
(Amos ix, 1-4, 7-8) 
I saw Yahweh, standing beside the altar, and He said: 


Smite the capitals, 
And break them in pieces 
And I will slay the residue 


There shall not one of them escape, 
Though they dig through to Sheol, 


And if they climb up to heaven, 
Though they hide themselves 
I will search them out from thence 


that the posts may shake, 

on the heads of them all; 

of them with the sword. 

nor shall one flee to safety. 
then shall My hand take them. 
thence will I bring them down; 
in the top of Carmel, 

and take them. 


262 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea, 

There will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them. 

And though they go into captivity before their enemies, 

There will I command the sword and it shall slay them, 

And I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good. 

Are ye not as the Cushites to Me, O Israel, saith Yahweh? 

Did I not bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt, 

And the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir? 

Behold, the eyes of the God Yahweh are upon the sinful kingdom, 
And I will destroy it from the face of the earth. 


POEMS AND APOTHEGMS OF THE PROPHET HOSEA 


THE PROLOGUE’ 
CUD ieee iy Obi a. 4D.96a tin 1-4 5a, Gs) 


Now Yahweh said unto Hosea: Go, take thee a wife of whoredoms 
who will bear you children of whoredoms; for the land is continually 
committing whoredoms, turning away from Yahweh. So he went and 
took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bare him 
a son. And Yahweh said unto him: Call his name Jezreel; for yet a 
little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the House of 
Jehu, and will cause the house of Israel to cease. And it shall come to 
pass in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of 
Jezreel. 

And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And He said unto 
him: Call her name Lo-Ruhamah; for I will have mercy no longer upon 
the house of Israel to pardon them in any wise. Now, when she had 
weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again conceived and bare a son. And He said: 
Call his name Lo-ammi; for ye are not My people, and I will not be 
your God. 

[Then Hosea said] They are children of harlotry; she that conceived 
them hath done shamefully; she is not my wife, nor will I be her hus- 
band, and on her children I will have no pity. 

Then Yahweh said unto me; Still, go, love a woman who loveth 
a paramour, and is an adulteress, even as Yahweh loveth the sons of 
Israel, though they turn unto other gods, and love cakes of raisins. 
(So I bought her unto me for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of 
barley, and a half-homer of barley. And I said unto her: Thou shalt 
sit solitary for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou 
shalt not be any man’s wife, nor will I have to do with thee.) Even so, 
the Israelites shall sit solitary many days without king and without 
prince and without sacrifice and without pillar and without ephod or 
teraphim. Afterward shall they come trembling to Yahweh and to His 
goodness in the end of days. 


I. YAHWEH PLEADS WITH HIS PEOPLE 
(Gh. 11 248./6. 0.7 D-da 21-25) 


Plead with thy mother, plead! 
That she put her harlotries out of her sight, 
Her adulteries from between her breasts; ' 
Lest I strip her naked and set her as on the day of her birth, 


And make her like a wilderness, _like a land without water, 
And discipline her with thirst. 
For she saith: I will go after my lovers who gave me 


My bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and wine. 

1 Hosea gives some personal experiences in which he sees a similarity to the relations 
between Yahweh and Israel, His Chosen People. In chapters i and ii, Hosea speaks of 
himself in the third person. In chap. iii, he uses the first person. 


263 


264 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Behold, I will hedge up 
And build up a wall about her, 
She shall pursue her paramours 

She shall seek them 

For she did not know 
The corn and the wine and oil 


her way with thorns, 

that she shall not find her way, 
but shall not overtake them. 
but she shall not find them. 
that it was I that gave her 

and multiplied her silver, 


And her gold that they used for Baal. 


Therefore I will take back my corn 
I will take back my wool and flax 


Now will I uncover her shame 
And none shall deliver 
I will cause her mirth to cease, 


and my wine in its season; 
given to cover her nakedness, 
in the sight of her lovers, 

her out of My hand. 

her feasts and her new moons, 


Her sabbaths and her appointed seasons. 


I will lay waste her vines, 
These are my hire, 
And I will make them a forest, 


her fig trees whereof she said: 
that my lovers have given me; 


where beasts of the field shall eat. 


IT will visit upon her the days of the Baalim 
Wherein she offered unto them, 
And decked herself with her ear-rings and jewels, 


And went after her lovers, 


Therefore I will allure her, 
I will speak kindly to her, 
And the valley of Achor 
And she shall respond there 


and forgat Me, saith Yahweh. 


and bring her into the desert; 
and will give her vineyards 
for a door of hope. 

as in the days of her youth, 


As in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 


And it shall be in that day 


that she shall call to her lord 


And shall call no more on the Baalim; 
And I will take the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, 


And they shall be mentioned 


no more by their names, 


And I will betroth her to Me forever, 
Yea, I will plight her to Me in righteousness 
In justice and loving-kindness, in mercy, yea, in fidelity, 
And she shall know Yahweh, saith Yahweh. 


And it shall come to pass that day, that I will speak, saith Yahweh, 


I will speak to the heavens, 


and they shall speak to earth; 


The earth shall speak to the corn, to the wine and to the oil, 


And they shall speak to Jezreel, 


And I will have mercy on her 
And TI will say to Lo-Ammi, 
And they shall say to Me, 


I will sow her to Me in the land. 


that had not obtained mercy; 
Thou art My people; 
Thou art my God. 


II. THE CHARGE AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL 
THAT THEY HAvE Not KNOWN YAHWEH 


(Ch. iv, 1-14, 16-19) 


Hear the word of Yahweh, O Israel! 


for Yahweh hath a charge 


Against the inhabitants of the land; 
For therein is neither truth, mercy nor knowledge of God.. 


But perjury, lying and murder 
They break all bounds, 

Therefore the land mourneth, 

With the beasts of the field 
Yea, the fish of the sea 


stealing and adultery. 

and blood answereth for blood. 
all its inhabitants languish 
and the fowls of heaven, 

also are swept away. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET HOSEA 265 


Yet, let no man bring charges, let none reprove another, 
For My people are neither worse nor better than the priests. 
So thou shalt stumble by day, the priest will fall by night, 


And I will Hnsttay thy mother. 


My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; 
Because tHOd hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, 
hat thou shalt be no priest to Me. 
Since thou forgettest the law of thy youth, 
I will also forget thy children. 


The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me. 
I will change their glory to shame; they feed on My people’s sin; 
It is like priest, like people; they have set their heart on evil. 
But I will punish them both for their ways, 
And I will reward them their doings. 
They shall eat and not be satisfied shall commit whoredom ant she 
elight, 
Because they have ceased to heed Yahweh. 


Whoredom and wine andnewwine  becloud the understanding. 


My people ask counsel of a stock, and their staff speaketh wisdom. 
For the spirit of harlotry hath caused them to err, 

And they have gone a-whoring not following their God. 

They sacrifice on mountaintops and burn incense on the hills, 

Under oaks and poplars and holms because their shade is good. 


Therefore your daughters are harlots, and your brides adulterous. 


I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot 
Nor your wives when they commit adultery; 
' For they have consorted with lewd women, 
They have sacrificed with the sacred prostitutes, 
Thus were they misled. 


For Israel hath been stubborn like a stubborn heifer. 

Will Yahweh now feed them as a lamb in a broad pasture? 
Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone! 

When their carouse is over they betake them to harlotry. 


Their rulers shamefully hold out the hand: Give ye! 
The wind shall bind them up in her wings, and they 
Shall be shamed because of their sacrifices. 


III. AGAINST PRIESTS AND RULERS 


(Ch. v, 41-14) 
Hear this, O ye Priests! and attend, O House of Israel! 
And give ear, 0 house of the king, for to you pertaineth judgment. 
A snare have ye been at Mizpah, and a net spread out on Tabor. 


The apostates have plunged deep in slaughter, 
And I am rejected of them all. 


I know Ephraim well indeed, and Israel is not hid from Me, 
For thou, O Ephraim, hast played the harlot; 
Israel is defiled. 
Their deeds do not suffer them to return unto their God. 


The spirit of harlotry is in them, and they know not Yahweh, 
For the pride of Israel will testify before Him, 
And Ephraim and Israel shall stumble in their guilt, 


266 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


With flocks will they seek Yahweh, but they shall not find Him, 
For they have been faithless to Yahweh, and begotten strange children. 
Now shall the new moon devour them and their portions. 


Blow ye the trumpet in Gibeah, sound the horn in Ramah! 
Raise an alarm in Bethel, making Benjamin tremble! 
Ephraim shall be a desolation in the day of visitation; 


Among the tribes of Israel do I unfold what shall surely be. 


The princes of Jacob have become like those who remove landmarks. 
I will pour out My wrath upon them like water. 
Oppressed is Ephraim, crushed in his right, because he steadfastly 
pursued evil. 
Therefore am I to Ephraim like a moth 
Like rottenness to the House of Jacob. 


When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Israel his wound, 
Ephraim went to Assyria, Israel to one who could not heal 
Nor cure him of his wound. 
But I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to Israel. 
I, even I will rend and go My way, I will carry away 
And there shall be none to deliver. 


IV. YAHWEH LAMENTS THE FICKLENESS OF ISRAEL 
(Ch. v, 15; vi, 1-10; vii, 41-7) 


I will go and return to My place until they confess their guilt, 
And seek My presence. 
In their affliction they will seek Me, saying: 
Come, let us return to Yahweh! 
He hath smitten, He will heal us; after two days He will raise us. 
And we shall live in His presence. 
Yea, let us know, let us eagerly seek to know Yahweh. 
His coming is as sure as morning; He will come to us as the rain, 
As the spring rain that gently waters the earth. 


O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? 
O Israel, what shall I do unto thee? 
For your goodness is like a morning cloud, 
And as the early dew it passeth away. 
I have hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them 
By the words of My mouth, 
That their judgments might be as the light when it goeth forth. 
For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, 
The knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings. 
But they, like men, have broken the covenant, 
They have been faithless to Me. 
Gilead is a city of evil-doers, it is polluted with blood; 
And as bandits lie in wait for a man, so doth a band of priests 
Murder on the way to Schechem; 
They commit deliberate crimes. 


In Bethel have I seen a horrible thing; 
There doth Ephraim commit whoredom, there is Israel defiled. 
When I would have healed Israel, then is the guilt of Ephraim revealed. 
And the thief entereth in, while bandits make a raid without. 
Let them not say in their heart that I store up all their guilt, 
For their continuous deeds which are ever in My sight betray them. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET HOSEA 267 


They delight the king with their wickedness, 
And the princes with their lies. 
They are all of them adulterers. 
They make our king ill, the princes are fevered with wine. 
They join hands with dissolute fellows. 
For like an oven, their heart burns all night with treachery. 
Through the night it slumbers; at morn, it blazes into a flame. 
All of them glow like an oven, and they consume their judges; 
All their kings have succumbed; none of them call unto Me. 


VY. A SECOND ARRAIGNMENT OF THE NATION 
(Ch. vii, 8-16; viii, 1-3) 


Ephraim! He letteth himself be mixed with foreign nations! 
Ephraim is a cake unturned. Strangers devour his strength 
And he knoweth it not. 
Gray hairs are here and there upon him, but he knoweth it not. 
Israel’s arrogance is in his face, 
And they return not unto Yahweh, their God. 
And in all this they seek him not. 


Ephraim is become like a silly dove; 


To Egypt they call, after Assyria they go. 
Even as they go, I will spread My net upon them. 
Like birds of the heavens, I will bring them down, 
I will chastise them because of their wickedness. 


Woe to them that they have strayed! Destruction, 
Because they are untrue to Me! 
Although it was I who redeemed them,. they spake lies about Me, 
And they have not cried unto Me with their heart, 
Though they wail upon their beds. 
They assemble themselves for corn and wine, 
But they rebel against Me. 


Though I have trained their arms _ and strengthened them, 
They devise evil against Me, they turn ever to Baal. 
They are become like a deceitful bow; 
Their princes fall by the sword, 
Because of the falseness of their tongues. 
In the land of Egypt they will lick the dust, 
For as an eagle, I will swoop down upon My house. 
To Me continually they cry; My God, we of Israel know Thee! 
Israel hath rejected that which is good; 
Let the enemy pursue him, 


VI. YAHWEH REPUDIATES ISRAEL’S KINGS AND IDOLS 
(Ch, viii, 4-13) 


They have set up kings, but not by Me; 
They have made princes without My knowledge; 
Of their silver and their gold, they have made them idols, 
That they may be cut off. 
Thy Calf, O Samaria, hath cut thee off! 
Mine anger is kindled against them! 
How long will it be that they escape punishment? 
For this too is from Israel; the ope made it; thus it is 
no God. 


268 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Yea, the Calf of Samaria shall be broken to slivers. 
For they have sown the wind and shall reap the whirlwind. 
They are a shoot that hath no stalk, and yieldeth no fruit; 

If it shall yield, strangers must devour it. 


Israel is swallowed up. 
Already are they among the nations as a vessel of no value. 
For they are gone up to Assyria like a wild ass all alone. 
Ephraim hath hired lovers. 
Yea, though they hire among the nations, I will gather them up. 
They begin to be diminished for the burden of kings and princes. 
Though Ephraim hath built up many altars, 
All of them are altars for sin. 
Though I wrote for him all My great Laws, 
They were accounted as a stranger’s. 


As for their sacrifices made by fire unto Me, 
Let them sacrifice flesh and eat it, 
For Yahweh accepteth them not; but He will remember their guilt 
And punish their sins. They shall return into Egypt. 


VII. ISRAEL SHALL AGAIN BE TAKEN CAPTIVE 
(Ch. ix, 1-16) 


Rejoice not, O Israel, unto ‘exultation like the nations, 
For thou hast strayed from thy God; thou hast loved 
A harlot’s hire upon every corn-floor. 
The threshing-floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, 
And the new wine shall fail her. 
They shall not dwell in Yahweh’s land, but Ephraim shall return 
Into Egypt. They shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 


They shall pour no wine-offerings to Yahweh, neither shall they 
Be pleasing to Him. 
Their bread shall be as bread of mourners; 
They that eat thereof shall be polluted; 
For their bread shall be for their hunger, 
It shall not come into the house of Yahweh. 
What will ye do on the festival-day, the Day of Feast to Yahweh? 


For lo, they are gone away from destruction, 


Yet Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them; 

Their precious treasures of silver, nettles shall cover them; 
Thorns shall be in their tents. 

The days of visitation are come, days of recompense are at hand. 


Israel shall know it. 
The prophet is a fool? The man inspired is raving mad? 
For the multitude of thine iniquities, the enmity is great. 


Ephraim was a watchman with my God! 
As for the prophet, a fowler’s snare is in all his ways. 
And enmity in the house of his God. 
They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. 
He will remember their guilt, He will punish their sin. 


I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; 
I saw your fathers as the first-ripe fruit of the fig-tree 
In her first season. 
But as soon as they came to Baal-Peer, 
They gave themselves up unto shame, 
And became as detestable as that which they loved. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET HOSEA 269 


As for Ephraim—like a bird his glory shall fly away. 
There shall be no birth, none with child, and no conception. 
Though they bring up their children, I will bereave them; 

No son shall be left. 


Yea, woe be unto them when I turn away from them! 
Ephraim, as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place. 
Yet Ephraim must himself lead out his children to slaughter. 
Give them, O Yahweh— what wilt Thou give? 
Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts! 


Their wickedness came to a head in Gilgal; there I hated them. 
For their evil-doing, I will drive them out of Mine house. 
I will love them no more. All their rulers are rebellious. 
Ephraim is smitten; their root is dried up; they shall bear Me 
No more fruit. 
Yea, though they bring forth, I will destroy 
~The beloved fruit of their womb. 


VIII A LAMENTATION FOR THE COMING RUIN 


(Ole a <6 
Israel was a luxuriant vine which put forth fruit freely. 
But, as the fruit increased, he increased his altars. 
The more gocdly was his land, the more goodly were his pillars. 
Their heart is divided, now shall they bear their guilt. 
Yahweh shall raze their altars, He shall spoil their idols. 


Surely they will now say: 
We have no king because we feared not Yahweh, 
But what could a king do for us? 
But the dwellers in Samaria shall fear for the Calf of Beth-Aven; 
For the people thereof shall mourn 
And the priests shall tremble for him; 
For the glory wherein they rejoiced hath departed from him. 


It also shall be borne to Assyria for a present to the great king. 
Ephraim shall be mae ace an Israel shall be ashamed 
its idol. 


As for Samaria, her king is cut off 
As foam from the face of the waters. 
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. 


Thorns and thistles shall come up upon their altars, 
And they shall ery to the mountains: Cover us! 
And to the hills: Fall upon us! 


IX. THE JUDGMENT THAT ISRAEL HAS EARNED 
(Ch. x, 9-15) 


O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah! 
There they stood; no battle would overtake them in Gibeah! 
In My wrath I will come and chastise them, 

The nations shall be gathered against them, 
To chastise them for their double crime. 


Ephraim is a heifer well-broken that loveth to thresh; 
I Myself laid a yoke on her fair neck; Ephraim was to ride; 
Israel was to plough, Jacob to break up the clods. 
But ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity. 
Ye have eaten the fruit of lies. 


270 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Because thou didst trust in thine own way, 
In the multitude of thy warriors, 


Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy hosts; 
Thy fortresses shall be spoiled as Shalman [ezer?] spoiled 
Beth-Arba in the day of battle. 
The mother was dashed in pieces with her children. 
Thus will I do unto you because of your great sins. 
Early in the morning shall the king of Israel 


Be utterly cut off. 


X. THe LoviInG KINDNESS OF YAHWEH 


(Chioxt, 04-93) 
When Israel was a child’ then I loved him 
And out of Egypt I called My sons; 
But the more I called them, the more they went away. 
They sacrificed unto the Baalim and made offerings to idols. 


Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, 
Taking them by their arms; 
But they knew not that I healed them. 


I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; 
I was to them as one who removeth the yoke from the jaws of an ox. 
And I set their food before them. 
He shall not return to the land of Egypt; 
The Assyrian shall be his king, 
Because they refused to return unto Me; 
And the sword shall fall upon his cities, and shall destroy 
His fortresses. 


How can I give up, Ephraim! How can I surrender thee, Israel! 
How can I make thee as Admah! How can [I set thee as Zeboim! 
My heart is turned within Me, My compassion glows for thee. 


I will not carry out the fierceness of Mine anger, 
I will not return to destroy Ephraim. 
For I am God and not man; the Holy One in the midst of Thee. 
And I will not come in wrath. 


XI. YAHWEH REVIEWS THE HISTORY AND FIXED INGRATITUDE 
OF ISRAEL 


(Ch. xii, 1-4a, 8-41, 14-15, 12) 


Ephraim compasses Me about with lies, 
And the House of Israel with deceit, 
And towards the Holy One, who is faithful? 
atheeeatat feedeth upon wind and hunteth the east wind. 
All day long he heapeth up falsehood and desolation. 
He maketh a league with Ashur and earrieth oil to Egypt. 
Yahweh hath a charge against Jacob and will punish Israel 
According to his deeds. 
In the womb he supplanted his brother; 
In his hand are false balances, he loveth to oppress. 
For Ephraim saith: I have become rich; 
_ Surely I have gained me wealth. 
All his gains will not secure him immunity for his sin. 


THE APOTHEGMS OF HOSEA 


But I am Yahweh, thy God since the land of Egypt. 
I will again make thee dwell in tents 
As ye did in the days of old. 
Yet I spake to you by prophets. and I multiplied visions, 
And through the mouths of prophets I spake in parables. 
And by a prophet I, Yahweh, brought Israel out of Egypt, 
And by a prophet was he preserved. 


vo 
~ 
— 


Ephraim hath given bitter provocation, therefore shall his blood 
Be cast upon him; 
And Yahweh will return upon him his reproach. 


THE APOTHEGMS OF HOSEA 
(Ohisxtii) 


i When Isreal spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel, 
But when he offended through Baalim, he died. 


II. They pb eae and more, having made themselves molten images 
of silver; 
Idols of their own devising; all of the craftmen’s work; 
Of them they say: They that sacrifice men, kiss calves. 


III. They shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that 
passeth away; 
As the chaff that is driven by the whirlwind from the threshing- 
floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. 


IV. Iam Yahweh, thy God, from the land of Egypt; thou shalt know 
no God but Me; for besides Me there is no saviour. 


V. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought; 
According to their pasture, so were they filled. 
They were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore have they 
forgotten Me. 


View aL vine be unto them as a lion; as a leopard will I watch them by 
e way. 
‘I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps, and will rend 
the caul of their hearts. There will I devour them like a 
lioness; as a wild beast will I tear them. 


VII. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thy help. 

I am thy King. Where in all thy cities is a king that can save 
thee? and the judges to whom thou saidst: Give us a king 
and princes? 

I gave thec a king in Mine anger, and take him away in wrath. 


VIII. The iniquity of Ephraim is wrapped up; his sin is laid up in 
store. 
The throes of a travailing woman are come upon him. He is 
unwise; for this is no time to linger in the place of the break- 
ing forth of children. 


IX. Shall I ransom them from the power of the grave? Shall I 
redeem them from danger? 
O Death! I will be thy plague. O Grave! I will be thy destruction. 
Repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes. 


X. Though he be fruitful among the reed-grass, an east wind shall 
come. The wind of Yahweh shall come up from the wilder- 
ness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall 
be dried up. 


XI, He shall despoil thee of thy treasure, all thy precious things. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 


A. EARLY POEMS WRITTEN DURING THE REIGNS OF 
JOTHAM AND AHAZ, KINGS OF JUDAH 


(Oni, bd Oe 20-21 ee Ot et ak -o, 
8-97) 12-15 padi yt 6-17, eek Vy TN, les) 


I. ON THE IMPENDING DAY OF YAHWEH 


O House of Israel! Come, let us walk in the light of Yahweh! 
For Thou, Yahweh, hast renounced Thy people, the House of Jacob. 
For they are full of diviners from the East, 
And of soothsayers, like the Philistines. 
Israel’s land is full of silver and gold, 
His treasures are endless. 
His land is full of horses, there is no end of his chariots. 
His land is full of idols, he worships the work of his hands. 
To them the mean man boweth down, the great man humbleth himself; 
Therefore Thou canst not forgive them. 


Go into clefts of the rock, and hide thyself in the dust, 
From the terror of Yahweh and for the glory of His majesty, 
When He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 
* * * * * * * 
* * * ed . to the moles and to the bats 

Shall men cast away that day the idols of silver and of gold 
Which they made to bow down to, that they may go in that day 
Into the clefts of the rocks and into the holes in the dust, 


From before the terror of Yahweh and for the glory of His majesty, 
When He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 


II. ON THE SAME SUBJECT? 
* * * * * * * 
The haughtiness of Mankind shall be bowed down 
And the loftiness of men brought low, 
And in that day shall Yahweh alone be exalted. 


For a day of doom hath Yahweh Sabaoth 
For all that is proud and lofty, for all that is lifted up and high. 
For all the lofty cedars of Lebanon and for all the oaks of Basham; 


For all the mountains the lofty, and for all the uplifted hills. 
For every high tower and for every fortified wall. 
For all the ships of Tarshish and for all the stately vessels. 


The haughtiness of Mankind shall be bowed down 
And the loftiness of men brought low, 
And in that day shall Yahweh alone be exalted. 


O cease trusting in man in whose nostrils is but a ee? 
For how little is he to be trusted. : : 


1 These fragments of separate poems on the Judgment to Come are Aidt iene by 
their refrains. 
212 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 


273 


Ill. A FRAGMENT ON THE FALL OF JUDAH. 


*K *K 


For behold, Yahweh Sabaoth removes 
Every stay and support; every stay 


peek * 


I will make youths their princes, 


x * 


from Jerusalem and from Judah 
of bread and stay of water. 


* * 


insulting boys shall rule them. 


The people shall tyrannize one over another, neighbor over neighbor. 
They shall be insolent, the boy to the aged, the base to the noble. 


For Jerusalem cometh to ruin 
Because their tongue and their deeds 


and Judah is falling, 
are against Yahweh 


To defy His glorious eyes. 


Their observance of persons 
And the sin of Sodom 


testifieth against them, 
they publish without disguise. 


Woe unto them! for they have wrought their own misfortunes. 


My People! a boy is their ruler, 


and women rule over them. 


My People; thy guides lead thee astray, they have confused thy ways. 


Yahweh cometh forward to plead, 


He enters into judgment with nobles, 


He stands to judge His people. 
with the elders of His people. 


It is ye who eat up the land; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 


What mean ye by crushing My people, 


grinding the face of the needy? 


Saith Yahweh, the Militant God. 


IV. A CHARGE AGAINST THE WOMEN OF JUDAH 


Because the daughters of Zion 
And walk with neck thrown back 
Tripping along as they go, 
Yahweh will encrust with scabs 

Yahweh will expose 
Instead of perfumes shall he decay 
Instead of curled hair, baldness, 
And in that day, seven women 
Our own bread will we eat, 
Only let us be called by thy name! 


are haughty 

and leering eyes, 

making a chime with their anklets, 
the crowns of their heads; 

their shames. 

and instead of a girdle, a rope; 

of a mantle, girding of sackcloth. 
will seize on one man, saying: 
we will wear our own garments, 
Take away our reproach! 


V. THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD 


A song will I sing of my friend, 
A vineyard belongs to my friend 


a love-song touching his vineyard. 
on a hill that is very fruitful. 


He digged it and cleared it of stones and planted in it choice vines. 


He built a tower in the midst 
He looked to find choice grapes; 


Ye in Jerusalem dwelling, 
Judge ye now, I pray, 
What could have been done more 
When I looked to find fine grapes, 


And now I will have you know 
Its hedge will I take away 

I will break through its walls 
I will make it a waste 


and hewed therein a wine-vat. 
and it bare only the wild! 


ye that are freemen of Judah, 
between me and my vineyard. 
than I had done for my vineyard? 
why bare it only the wild? 


what I will do to my vineyard. 
that it be eaten up. 

that it be trodden down; 
neither pruned nor weeded; 


It shall bear only briers and thorns; I will command the clouds 
That they rain no rain upon it. 


274 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 
For the vineyard of Yahweh Sabaoth is the House of Israel; 


And the men of Judah are His cherished plantation. 
And He looked for peace, and behold, bloodshed! 
For righteousness, but behold, an outcry! 


VI. THE VISION OR CALL OF ISAIAH 
(Ch? vie1-13) 

In the year that King Uzziah died [740 B.c.] I saw Yahweh sitting 
on a high and uplifted throne, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 
Above Him stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain 
he covered his face, with twain he covered his loins, and with twain 
he did fly. And again and again, one cried to another, and said: 

Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth! 
The whole earth is full of His glory. 

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the sound of their 
voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. And I said: Woe is me! 
I am undone! I am aman of unclean lips. Mine eyes have seen the 
King, Yahweh Sabaoth. 

Then flew one of the seraphim unto me with a glowing coal in his 
hand that he had taken from off the altar, and with it he touched my 
lips, and said: 

Lo, this hath touched thy lips; 
Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven. 


And I heard the voice of Yahweh, saying: 
Whom shall I send? who will go for Me? 


Then said I: Here am I; send me. And He said: 
Go and say to this people: 


Hear Me, but understand not! See on, but perceive not! 
Make fat this people’s heart, make dull their ears and dim their eyes 
Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 


And understand with their hearts and return, and be healed. 
And I said: O Yahweh, how long? And He said: 
Until cities be waste without inhabitant, 
And houses without men, and the land be left 
A desolation, 
And Yahweh have removed the men afar, 
And in the heart of the land the deserted regions be wide. 
And if a tenth part be left therein, this also will be consumed 
Like the terebinth and the oak, 
Whereof the stock, after felling, remaineth. 


VII. THE SIXFOLD DENUNCIATION OF THE SINS OF ISRAEL 
(Is. v, 8-24. Written c. 735 B.c.) 


Woe unto those who join house to house and add field to field 
Till there be no more room, and ye are settled 
Alone in the midst of the land. 
Therefore thus hath Yahweh Sabaoth revealed himself in mine ears. 
Surely your many houses shall become a desolation, 
Your great and fair palaces without an inhabitant. 
Two acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, 
And the seed of an homer but an ephah. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 275 


Woe to those who rise at dawn to revel in strong drink! 
Who tarry late into the night inflamed with wine! 
At their banquets are flute and harp, tabret, flute and wine; 
But they regard not Yahweh’s ways, nor ponder His handiwork. 
Therefore My people shall go into exile unawares, 

Their honored men shall be weak for hunger, 

Their multitudes parched for thirst. 

Therefore Sheol gapes ravenously and opens widely her mouth, 
And their glory, their busy throngs and joyous ones, 
Plunge headlong in. 

Lambs shall graze where they dwelt, 
Wanderers shall feed in their desert wastes. 


Woe unto them that draw guilt to them with cords of iniquity 
And sin as with a cart-rope; 
Who say: Let Him hasten His work, let it speed 
That we may see it! 
Let the purpose of Israel’s Holy One be revealed 
That we may know it! 


Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, 
Who put darkness for light and light for darkness; 
Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 
Woe unto those who are wise—in their own eyes, 
And keen-witted in their own conceit! 
Woe unto them who are mighty—in drinking wine, 
And well-skilled—in mixing drinks! 
Who justify the wicked for a bribe, 
And strip the righteous of his integrity! 


As the tongue of fire devoureth hay and stubble shrivels in flame, 
So shall their root become rottenness, 
And their blossom go up like dust; 
Because they have rejected the Law of Yahweh Sabaoth, 
And spurned the word of Israel’s Holy One. 


VIII. THE IMMINENT PUNISHMENT OF ISRAEL ?* 
(Choix, 8-21; x, 1-4b; v, 26-29, 25c.) 
Written 734 B.c. 


A word hath Yahweh sent unto Jacob, and it shall light upon Israel. 
And all the people shall know it; Ephraim and the men of Samaria, 
Who have stiffened their necks in pride, 
And in stoutness of heart, saying: 
Bricks have fallen down, but we will build with stone! 
Sycamores have been felled, cedars will fill their places! 
Hence Yahweh hath stirred up their foe, 
And spurred on their enemies against them; ffl 
Aram on the east, the Philistines on the west, and they devour 
Israel greedily. 
Because of all this, His anger is not turned away, 
But His hand is stretched out still. 


Yet the people turn not to Him that smote them, 
And Yahweh do they not regard; 

So from Israel Yahweh will cut off head and tail, 
Palm-branch and rush in one day.’ 


1From this point, Isaiah’s poems are amazingly dislocated; but his frequent use of 
refrain, and the individuality of his style have gone far in enabling scholars to restore 
them in large measure. ; 

2Vy, 15-16 are an inserted marginal gloss which destroys the force of the preceding 
figure; they are therefore omitted. 


276 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Therefore Yahweh spareth not their youths, 
Nor pitieth their orphans and widows; 
Because every one is impious and an evil-doer, 
And every mouth speaketh folly. 
For all this, His anger is not turned away, 
But His hand is stretched out still. 


For wickedness burneth as a fire, 
It consumeth briars and thorns; 
Yea, it kindleth the thickets of the forest; 
They whirl upward in columns of smoke. 
By the fury of Yahweh the land is burned up, 
The people become food for the flame. 
One snatcheth on the right, yet is famished, 
On the left-hand, and still is hungry. 
Everyone eateth his neighbor’s flesh, 
None hath pity on his fellow. 
Manasseh devoureth Ephraim, Ephraim Manasseh, 
And both together against Judah. 
all this, His anger is not turned away 
But His hand is stretched out still. 


Fo 


Lar 


Woe to them that set up unjust decrees, 
To the scribes who write iniquity! 
Who turn aside justice from the helpless, 
And despoil the poor of My people of their rights, 
That widows may be’ their prey, 
And that orphans may be their plunder. 
What then will ye do in the day of punishment, 
Of crashing storm that comes from afar? 
To whom will ye flee for aid, 
And where will ye leave your wealth? 
For all this, His anger is not turned away, 
But His hand is stretched out still. 


So He will raise a signal to a distant nation,’ 
And hiss to them to come from the end of the earth; 
And lo, speedily, swiftly they come. 
None there is weary, and among them none stumbles; 
The zone of their loins is not loosened; 
Of their sandals there tears not a thong. 
Their arrows are sharpened, all their bows are bent, 
The hoofs of their horses are counted as flint, 
And as a whirlwind their wheels. 
Their roaring is like that of the lion, 
Yea, like young lions they roar, and growl, 
and seize the prey, 
And earry it off safe and none rescues it. 
For all this, His anger is not turned away, 
But His hand is outstretched still2 


: 1This fine strophe, the appropriate conclusion of the poem, we find misplaced in 
chapter v. 

2 This superb translation of Isaiah’s great ode is borrowed from the works of the late 
Canon Cheyne, to whose profound exegesis and literary acumen every Bible student is 
deeply indebted. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 277 


B. EVENTS AND POEMS OF THE YEAR 734 B.C., DURING 
THE CAMPAIGN OF TIGLATH PILESER III, IN SYRIA 


I. IsSAIAH’s COUNSEL TO AHAZ (Ch. vii. 2-16.) 


And it was told the House of David that Aram was confederate with 
Ephraim. And the heart of Ahaz was moved and the heart of his 
people, as the trees of the forest are moved by the wind. Then said 
Yahweh unto Isaiah: Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and thy son 
Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the high- 
way by the fuller’s field, and say to him: Be wary, and keep thyself 
calm; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint because of these two fag- 
ends of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and 
of Ben-Remaliah. Because Aram hath proposed evil against thee with 
Ephraim and Ben-Remaliah, saying: Let us go up against Judah and 
distress it and win it for ourselves, and appoint Ben-Tabel to be king 
therein, thus saith Yahweh: 


It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. 
For the head of Syria is Damascus, 
And the head of Damascus is Rezin; 
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, 
And the head of Samaria is Ben-Remaliah. 
If ye will not have faith, ye shall not be established. 


And Isaiah spake further unto Ahaz, saying: Ask thee a sign of 
Yahweh, thy God; ask it either in the deep below or in the height 
above. But Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I test Yahweh. 
Then Isaiah said: Hear now, O House of David; Is it a small thing for 
you to weary man, and will ye weary God also? Therefore, Yahweh 
himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and 
bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel; because, before the boy 
shall know how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land, of 
whose two kings thou art sore afraid, shall be unpeopled. 


II... PROPHECIES OF THE RUIN OF DAMASCUS AND SAMARIA 
(Ch. vii, 18-20; viii, 1-4; viii, 5-7; viii, 20b-22) 
Yahweh will hiss unto the flies and to the bees, and they 
Will come and settle between the steep heights 
And in the clefts of the rocks, 
And in all thorn-hedges and in all pastures. 
Yahweh will shave, with the razor that is hired 
Beyond the River, 
The head and the hidden hair, and the beard also 
Will He take away. 


Yahweh said unto me: Take thee a large tablet, and write upon it 
in plain characters, “SWIFT SPOIL, SPEEDY PREY”; and take for Me 
as faithful witnesses Uriah the priest and Zechariah Ben-Jeberechiah. 
And I went in unto the prophetess and she conceived and bare a son. 
Then said Yahweh unto me: Call his name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz;* for 
before the boy shall know how to cry “my father” and “my mother”, 
the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away 
before the king of Assyria. 


1The Hebrew words written on the tablet and translated ‘‘swift spoil, speedy prey.” 


278 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Yahweh said further unto me: Forasmuch as this people have 
rejected the waters of Shiloh that flow softly, and despond because of 
Rezin and Ben-Remaliah; now, therefore, behold: 


Yahweh bringeth on them the waters of the mighty River and great; 
It shall rise above all its channels, and overflow all its banks 

And sweep onward unto Judah, flow over and pass beyond, 
Reaching even unto the neck 

Yahweh’s outspread wings shall cover “the full breadth. of the land. 


Know, ye peoples, and give ear, all ye far lands of the earth! 
Gird yourselves, yet ye shall be terror-stricken; 
Gird yourselves, yet ye shall be terror-stricken. 
Devise a plan, it shall come to naught; 
Declare a word, but it shall not stand. 

For thus Yahweh hath saiduntome calming me with His hand, 
Warning me not to follow the custom of the people: 


Call not all a conspiracy that this people call conspiracy; 
That which they fear, fear not ye, nor count it 
worthy of dread. 
Yahweh Sabaoth, Him count ye holy 
Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. 


He shall be a stone to strike against, 
A rock of stumbling, a trap and a snare 
To both Houses of Israel, to the dwellers in Jerusalem. 
Many shall stumble thereover and fall, 
And be broken, and be snared and be taken. 


ON THE DESPAIR OF THE PEOPLE 
for whom there is no daybreak; 


A ; ; ; he, 

And he will pass through it, hard-pressed and famishing. 
And when he is famished, he will be enraged: 

And he will curse his king and his God, and look upward 


and then to earth will he look, 
And behold, distress and gloom, a dark veil of anguish, 
And thick darkness : : : : 


III. THE DOWNFALL OF DAMASCUS AND ISRAEL 
(Ch. xvii, 1-11) 


Lo, the day is at hand when Damascus shall cease to be a city; 
Forsaken shall be the cities thereof; they shall become a ruin; 
They shall be for flocks lying down, with none to afright them, 
Ephraim shall lose her fastnesses, Damascus her sovereignty, 
And the remnant of Aram shall be like the glory of Israel, 

Saith Yahweh Sabaoth. 


In that day shall the glory of Jacob grow dim 

And the fatness of his flock become lean. 
It shall be as when a harvester gathers standing wheat 

And reapeth the ears with his arm. 

Yet it shall be as when he gathers ears in the vale of Rephaim, 
And gleanings thereof shall be left like beatings of olives, 
Two or three on the uppermost bough, four or five 

On the boughs of fruit-trees, saith Yahweh Sabaoth. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 219 


In that day shall thy cities be deserted 
Like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites 
Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy safety, 
And hast not remembered the rock that is thy bulwark. 
Therefore, though thou plantedst little gardens 
With shoots for Adonis, 
And didst set them with slips from a stranger’s garden; 
Though, as soon as thou didst plant them, 
Thou didst fence them in, 
And didst early bring thy shoots to blossom; 
The harvest shall vanish in a day of sickness, 
And desperate pain. 


C. POEMS OF THE YEAR 722 B.C. WHEN THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL 
WAS DESTROYED, AND THE TEN TRIBES CARRIED AWAY 


I. THE SIGNAL—REMARKABLE PRESERVATION OF JUDAH 
(Ch. xvii, 12-147) 
Woe! the tumult of many nations! 
Like the tumult of the seas is their uproar; 
And the tumult of rushing nations, 
Like the roaring of mighty waters is their roar. 
But when He rebukes them, they flee afar off, 
And are driven like the chaff of mountain threshing-floors 
Before the wind, 
And like whirling dust before the tempest. 


At eventide, behold terror! Before morning, they are gone! 
Be this the lot of our spoilers, the lot of our plunderers! 


Il. A LAMENT ON THE FALL OF SAMARIA 
(Ch. xxviii, 1-4) 


Woe! the proud coronets of the drunkards of Ephraim! 
And the fading flower of her glorious beauty 
Which crowned the rich valley of those 
Who by wine are down-smitten! 


Behold, Yahweh hath at hand a mighty weapon. 


Like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, 
Like a storm of rushing overflowing waters, 
He casts down to earth with violence. 


They shall be trampled underfoot, 
The proud coronets of the drunkards of Ephraim 
And the fading flower of her beauteous adornment 
Which crowned the rich valley,— 
They shall be like an early fig before the fruit-season 
Which, as soon as a man has in his hand, he swalloweth. 


III. A FRAGMENT ON THE SAME SUBJECT 
(Ch. i, 29-31) 


Because of the terebinths in which ye had pleasure, 
Ye shall be shamed, 
And will blush for the gardens which ye have chosen! 
For ye shall be like a terebinth whose eaves 
Are withered, 
1 There is an interval of eleven years between Ch. xvii, 11, and the addition, vv. 12-14; 


during which time Tiglath Pileser III began, and Shalmanezer IV, and Sargon completed 
the conquest of all Syria (Aram) and Israel. But Judah was mercifully spared. 


280 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And like a garden that hath no water. 
The strong man will be as tow, his work as a spark, 
They shall both burn together, and none will quench them. 


ON THE FATE OF THE PHILISTINES (c. 720 B.C.) 
(Ch. xiv, 29-32) 
Rejoice not in all thy borders, Philistia,’ 
That the rod that smote thee is broken! 
For out of the serpent’s root will issue a basilisk, 
And a flying dragon will be its fruit. 


The poor will feed on My meadows, 
And the needy will lie down securely; 
But thy seed will I kill with famine, 
And thy remnant will I slay. 


Howl, O gate! (Cry, O city! 

Faint in all thy borders, Philistia! 

For out of the north cometh the smoke of the foe, 
And no straggler is found in his levies. 


And what will the king of My people answer 

If messengers of a nation should ask of him? 

That Yahweh hath founded Zion, 

And in her shall the afflicted of His People find refuge. 


D. Trz Last DECADE OF ISAIAH’S CAREER 
AS POET AND COUNSELLOR TO THE KING 


(711-701 B.c.) 


I. Or ASSYRIA, THE INSTRUMENT OF YAHWEH’S JUDGMENTS 
(Che x, 5-97, 1S Aa xiv 24-2051 Sie38) 
Woe! Asshur, the rod of Mine anger, 
And the staff of Mine indignation! 


Against an impious nation am I wont to send him 
And against the objects of My wrath to give him a charge 


To take the spoil and to seize the booty 
And to trample them down like mire in the streets. 
Howbeit, he meaneth not so nor doth his mind so plan; 
To destroy in his intent, to cut off nations not a few, 

Are not my captains all kings? he saith 

Hath not Calno fared like Carchemish? 

Is not Hamath as Arpad, Or Samaria like Damascus? 

By the strength of my hand have I done it, 

By my wisdom, for I am prudent. 


I have changed the bounds of the peoples 
And I have robbed their treasuries, 
And I have brought low, those that were seated high. 
My hand hath found the riches of the peoples 
As in a nest, 
As one gathereth eggs that are forsaken 
Have I carried off all the earth. 
None fluttered a wing or opened a beak or chirped. 


Therefore Yahweh Sabaoth hath sworn: 
Surely, as I have planned, so shall it be; 
And as I have purposed so it shall stand. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 281 


That I will break Asshur in My land, 
And upon My mountains [ will tread him underfoot. 
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth 


This is the hand outstretched, over all nations. 
Yahweh Sabaoth hath purposed, who shall thwart Him? 
His is the outstretched hand, who can turn it back? 


His burden will be removed from thy shoulder, 
And his yoke shall no more press thy neck. 


A FRAGMENT UPON THE SAME SUBJECT 


Behold! ; the foe hath come to Aiath! 
He hath passed through. Migron he layeth up his baggage 
At Michmash. 
He goes over the pass; in Geba he halts for the night. 
Ramah is terror-stricken, Saul’s Gibeah is fleeing! 
Cry with a shrill voice, O daughter of Gallim! 


Hearken, O Laish! answer her, Anathoth! Madmenah is in flight. 
The dwellers in Gebim. flee to cover; 
This very day he will halt in Nob; he shaketh his fist at Zion, 

At the hill of Jerusalem! 


II. CONCERNING THE CAPTIVITY OF EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA 
(Ch. xx, 1-6) 


In the year that the Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon, king of 
Assyria, and assaulted Ashdod and took it, Yahweh said unto Isaiah the 
son of Amoz: Go, and loose the sackcloth from thy loins, and put off 
thy shoe from off thy foot; and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 
And Yahweh said: Like as My servant Isaiah hath gone naked and 
barefoot three years as a sign and a warning to Egypt and Ethiopia, 
so will the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and the 
exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and their bodies 
exposed. And those who looked to Ethiopia and boasted of Egypt will be 
dismayed and disappointed. And the inhabitants of this coast will say 
in that day: Truly, if such is the plight of those to whom we looked, 
and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, 
how can we ourselves hope to escape? 


III. WARNING TO JERUSALEM, SEEING THAT SHE HAS 
LEARNED NOTHING FROM THE FALL OF ISRAEL 


(Ch. xxviii, 7-22) 
* * * * * * * 


But these also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink! 
The priest and the prophet are confused because of wine. 
They reel, telling their visions; they totter, giving judgment. 
Their tables are full of filthy vomit; 
No place is clean. 


“To whom,” say they, would he teach knowledge, and to whom 
explain a revelation? To weanlings just parted from the breast? For 
he is ever gibbering in a strange tongue; cav la cav, Gav la cav, qav la 
qav, qav la qav; here a word, there a word. Will he verily speak to this 


282 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


people with stammering lips and in an alien tongue,*~—he, who used to 
say to them: This is the true rest, give ye rest to the weary; this is 
the true refreshment?” But they would not hear. So to them the word 
of Yahweh shall indeed come ¢av la gav, cav la gav; qav la qav, qav la 
qav, here a word, there a word; so that, as they go, they may stumble 
and fall backward, and be shattered, be ensnared, and be taken. 


Wherefore, hear the word of Yahweh, ye scoffers! 
Rulers of the people which is in Jerusalem, 
Because ye have said: We have made a covenant with death, 
And with Sheol we are in agreement; 
The overwhelming scourge, when it passes, will not reach us, 
For we have made lies our refuge; by deceit are we hidden,— 
Therefore thus saith Yahweh: 
Behold, I lay in Zion a_ stone, a tried and precious stone, 
A foundation corner-stone. He who believes 
Will be firmly planted. 
I will make justice the measuring-line 
And righteousness the plumb-weight. 
Hail shall sweep away your hiding-place, 
Waters shall overwhelm the hiding-place, 
And your covenant with death shall be annulled; 
Your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. 
When the whelming scourge passeth through, 
By it shall ye be beaten down. 
As often as it passeth through, it shall bear you away. 
Morning by morning shall it pass through, by day and night. 
Then shall it be sheer terror to understand the message. 


For Yahweh will rise up as in Mount Perazim, 

(He will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon) 

To do His work (strange is His work), 

To carry through His task (strange is His task)! 


Now therefore, be ye not scoffers lest your bands be made strong. 
For a decree of utter destruction have I heard from 
Yahweh Sabaoth. 


IV. THE Fate oF JERUSALEM, OF ARIEL, THE ALTAR OF GOD 
OR HIS HEARTH-FIRE 


(Written c. 703) 
(Ch. xxix, 1-6, 9-40, 13-14) 
Alas, Ariel! Ariel! city against which David encamped! 


Add ye year to year! Let feasts run their full course! 
Then will I distress Ariel, there shall be moaning 

And bemoaning; 
And she shall be to Me a true Hearth-of-God. 


Like David will I encamp against thee, 
And will lay siege against thee. 
I will close thee in with mounds, 
And will set up forts against thee. 
Then, being humbled, thou wilt speak from the ground. 
And thy speech will come submissively out of the dust. 


* * * * * * * 
21No one has yet found these syllables in any ancient or newly-discovered language. 


To the early translators they represented words of wisdom; they are but the gibberish by 
which the scoffers mock at Isaiah’s warnings, unintelligible to them. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISATAH 


Then suddenly, full suddenly, shall Ariel be punished. 
Yahweh Sabaoth will send thunder and earthquake, 
The noise of a whirlwind and tempest, with flame 
Of devouring fire. 
* * * * * * * 


Stupefy yourselves, and be stupid! Blind yourselves and be blind! 


283 


Be ye drunken but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! 


For Yahweh hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, 
And hath closed your ears, and covered your hands. 


Thus saith Yahweh: Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with 
their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart they keep 
from Me, and their fear of Me is but a precept of men, learned by rote; 


therefore, behold, 


I will again do a marvelous work among this people, 
Even an astonishing work and a wonder; so that 
The wisdom of their wise men shall perish, 

The discernment of their sages shall disappear. 


V. FRAGMENTS AGAINST THE EGYPTIAN ALLIANCE 
Clip ’.2 4b ibe c@.cts Bay irer ey, 
Woe unto those who from Yahweh ~~ deeply hide their purpose 


So that their work is done in the dark; and they say: 


Who seeth us? and who knoweth of us? ; 

Woe to the unruly sons, saith Yahweh; carrying out 

A purpose that is not Mine and concluding a treaty 
Contrary to My spirit, adding sin to sin! 


Who set forth on the way to Egypt without asking 
My counsel, 
To flee to the strength of Pharaoh, and take shelter 
In the shadow of Egypt. 
Such shelter will turn to your shame, and the refuge 
To your confusion, 
For though the princes of Zoan are his vassals, 
And his messengers have come to Hanes, 
They will all be ashamed of a people that cannot profit them 
Which bring neither help nor profit, 
But disappointment and disgrace. 


Through a land of disgrace and anguish, of roaring lions, 
Whence come the viper, and the flying serpent, 


They bring their wealth on the backs of young asses, 


And their treasures upon the humps of camels, 
To a people that can profit no one, whose help 
Is but vapor and emptiness. 


VI. ON THE COMING RUIN OF THE STATE, AND ITS CAUSE 


(Ch. xxx, 8-17) 


Now, go in, write it down on a tablet, 
Inscribe it on a scroll, 
That it may serve in days to come as a testimony for ever. 
For it is a rebellious people, lying children, 
Children that refuse to hear the teaching of Yahweh. 


284 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


That say to the seers: See not! to the prophets: 
Do not prophesy to us right things! 
Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy delusions. 
Turn out of the way, go aside from the path! 
Trouble us no more with Israel’s Holy One! 


Thus saith therefore Israel’s Holy One: Because ye despise this 
word, and trust in oppression and perversity and rely thereon, therefore 
this iniquity shall be unto you as a breach swelling out in a high wall, 
ready to fall, whose breaking cometh suddenly, in a moment. Yea, it 
breaketh as one dasheth a potter’s vessel to pieces, shattering it ruth- 
lessly, so that there shall not be found a sherd among its pieces with 
which to take up fire from a hearth, or to draw water out of a cistern. 
For thus saith Yahweh your God, Israel’s Holy One: 


In returning and quietness shall be your safety, 
In quietness and faith shall be your strength. 


But ye have refused, saying: 


Nay, for we will fly upon horses. Therefore shall ye flee! 

We will ride upon swift ones. They that pursue you shall 
be swift. 

Ye shall flee at a war-cry of five, till your remnant shall be 

As a pole on the top of a mountain, as a signal set on a hill. 


VII. ANOTHER FRAGMENT ON THE EGYPTIAN ALLIANCE 
Ghieeweh cease 


Woe unto those that go down to Egypt for help! 
Who rely on horses and trust in chariots, because they are many; 
And in horsemen because they are exceedingly strong; 
But they look not to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek Yahweh! 


Yet He too is wise, and bringeth evil to pass, 
Nor hath He recalled His words. 
He will arise against the house of evil-doers, 
And against those who help the workers of wickedness. 


But the Egyptians are men, not God; 
Their horses are flesh, not spirit. 

Yahweh will stretch out His hand, he that helpeth will stumble 
And he that is helped shall fall. 
All shall come to an end together. 


VIII. ANOTHER FRAGMENT ON THE SAME 
(Xx k Les 


Thus hath Yahweh said unto me: 
Like as the old or the young lion growls over his prey 
When the band of shepherds is summoned against him, 
But at their shouting is not dismayed, 
and by their noise is not daunted, 
So will Yahweh Sabaoth come down to fight 
Against Mount Zion, and against the hill thereof. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 285 


IX. AGAINST THE PREFECT OF THE PALACE 
(Ch. xxii, 15-418) 


Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth: Go to the Prefect and say, What 
right hast thou here and what kin hast thou here, that thou hast hewn 
out a sepulchre for thyself here? Thou that hast hewn out a sepulchre 
for thyself in the rock, behold, Yahweh will hurl thee up and down; 
yea, He will wind thee round and round; He will violently roll and toss 
thee like a ball into a wide-stretching land. Thither shalt thou go to 
die, and thither will go thy splendid chariots, thou disgrace of the house 
of thy master! 


X. Two FRAGMENTS ON WHICH LATER WRITERS BUILT UP 
THE ORACLE ON Moas (Ch. xv-xvi) 
AND THAT ON KeEpDAR (Ch. xxi, 11-15) 


In three years, exactly measured, shall Moab’s glory become con- 
temptible, despite all that great tumult; and the remnant shal: be very 
small and without strength. 


In a year more, exactly measured, all the glory of Kedar shall 
be past; and the number of the archers, the mighty men of the Children 
of Kedar, shall be diminished. Yahweh, the God of Israel, hath spoken it. 

(CHAXVin-A4s (xxi AG-417) 


XI. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIAN ARMY 
(Ch. xviii, 1-6) 


Ah, land of the shrill buzzing of insects’ wings, 
Which sendest ambassadors by the sea in skiffs of papyrus 
Over the waters! 

Depart, ye fleet messengers, to a nation tall and of glossy skin, 
To a people dreaded far and wide, a nation sturdy and heroic, 
Whose land rivers divide! 

All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, 
When an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye! 
When the horn is blown, hear ye! 
For thus hath Yahweh said unto me: 
I will hold Me still and look on from My dwelling-place. 
Like clear heat in sunshine, as the dewy mist during harvest. 
Before the harvest, when the bloom is over, 
And the bud becometh a ripening grape, 
He will lop off the branches with pruning-hooks, 
And cut off and cast away the young shoots. 
Both will be left for ravenous birds, and for beasts of prey, 


Thereon the wild birds will summer, and the beasts of the land 
shall winter. 


XII. Tur Poet’s LAst APPEAL TO HIS PEOPLE TO REPENT 
701 B.c. (Ch. i, 2-26) 


Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! for Yahweh hath spoken. 
Sons have I reared and set on high 
But they have rebelled against Me. 
The ox knoweth its owner, and the ass his master’s crib, 
But Israel doth not know, My people do not consider. 


286 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Ah, sinful people! seed of evil-doers! 
Guilt-laden nation, degenerate children! 
They have forsaken Yahweh, spurned Israel’s Holy One! 
They have turned away backward. 


On what part can ye still be smitten, 
Seeing ye revolt more and more? 
The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; 
From the sole of the foot to the head, there is no sound part. 
Nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, 
That have not been pressed nor bound up nor softened with oil. 
Your land is a desolation, your cities are burned with fire; 
Your arable land, strangers devour it before your face, 
Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, 
As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 
Except Yahweh Sabaoth had left us a very small remnant, 
We should have been as Sodom, like unto Gomorrah. 


Hear the word of Yahweh, ye rulers of Sodom! 
Give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah! 
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? 
Saith Yahweh. 
I am sated with burnt-offerings of rams, with the fat of beasts; 
In the blood of bullocks and lambs and goats, I have no delight. 
When ye come before My holy court, who hath required this of you? 


No more may ye trample My courts nor bring Me vain oblations; 

They are an abomination unto Me; neither can I endure 

Your new moons and sabbaths, your fasts, your calling of 
assemblies and solemn meetings; 

They are an encumbrance to Me, I am tired of hearing them. 


If ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; 
Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; 
Your hands are full of blood. 
Wash you, make you clean! Let Me see the evil of your doings no more. 
Seek justice, relieve the oppressed; right the orphan; 
Plead for the widow. 


Come now, and let us reason together; saith Yahweh. 
Though your sins be as scarlet, they may become white as snow; 
Though they be red as crimson, they may become as wool. 
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. 
But if ye refuse and rebel, by the sword ye shall be eaten. 
The mouth of Yahweh hath spoken. 


O, how hath she become a harlot, the faithful city! 
Zion, which was full of justice, where righteousness abode! 
Thy silver is changed to dross, thy wine is a mixed juice; 
Thy rulers are unruly, they are companions of thieves. 
Every one loveth bribes and runneth after rewards; 
The cause of the widow is disregarded, 
They right not the fatherless one. 


Therefore this is the oracle of Yahweh, 
The hero of Israel. 
Aha, I will ease Me of Mine adversaries, | 
And take vengeance on Mine enemies! 
T will turn Mine hand against thee, 
In the furnace I will smelt out thy dross. 
I will take away all thine alloy. 
I will restore thy judges to be as at first, 
And thy counsellors as at the beginning. 


Thereafter, thou shalt be called | 
THe City OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. THE FAITHFUL CITY. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH 287 


XIII. ISAIAH’S LAST POEM (701 B.c.) 


A LAMENT OVER THE USELESSNESS OF HIS PREACHING, 
AND His PREVISION OF THE END. 


(Ch. xxii, 1-14) 


What aileth thee now, that all thy people 
Are gone up to the house-tops? 
Thou that art full of uproar, a tumultuous city, a joyous town? 
Thy slain are not slain with the sword, nor fallen in battle; 
All thy chieftains fled together without the shooting of a bow. 
They were made prisoners; all thine who were seized 
Were made prisoners together, though they had fled far away. 


Therefore I say: Look away from me! Let me weep bitterly! 
Strive not to comfort me for the destruction of my people! 
For a day of tumult, of trampling and of confusion cometh 
From Yahweh Sabaoth. 
In the Valley of Vision they break down the wall, and their cry 
Reacheth the mountains. 


They come from far; a great nation from the ends of the earth 
Elam took up the quiver; they came with troops of men, 

Yea, even horsemen! 
And Kir uncovered the shield; thy fairest vales were full of chariots. 
And the horsemen set them in array against the gates, 
And the enemy drew aside the screen of Judah. 


Then ye looked to the armor’ in the House of the Forest, 
And ye saw that the breaches in David’s city were many; 
But ye looked not to Him who had prepared all this, 
And Him ye did not regard who fashioned it long ago. 

Then did Yahweh Sabaoth call you. to weeping and lamentation, 

To baldness and to girding with sackcloth; 
But behold! joy and gladness, slaughtering of sheep 
And killing of oxen; eating and drinking; for ye thought: 
To-morrow we may die! 


But thus Yahweh Sabaoth hath revealed Himself in mine ears; 
NEVER CAN THIS YOUR INIQUITY BE CANCELLED TILL YE DIE! * 


1 Chapters xxxvi-xxxix, formerly included in Part I of the Book of Isaiah, ascribed to 
Isaiah I, are also, almost verbatim, in 2 Kings, xviii 13-xx, 18. Both may have been 
derived from the same records, but evidently neither was written by Isaiah. There are 
even, in both, two different descriptions of the same event. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET MICAH 


I. THE COMING OF YAHWEH IN JUDGMENT 
(Che. 211,441) 


Hear, all ye people! 
Hearken, O Earth, and all that is therein, 
And let the God Yahweh be witness against you, 
Yahweh, from His holy temple. 


For behold! Yahweh cometh forth out of His place, 
And will come down and tread upon the high places of earth. 

And the mountains shall be smitten under Him, 

And the valleys shall be cleft, 
As wax before the fire, and as waters poured down 

A steep place. 

For the transgression of Jacob is all this, 

For the sins of the House of Israel. 


What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? 
And what the high places of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 
Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the field, 
A place for planting vineyards, 
I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, 
And the foundations thereof I will uncover. 
All her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, 
And all her hires shall be burned with fire; 
For of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, 
And unto the hire of a harlot shall they return. 


For this I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; 
I will make a wail like jackals and a mourning like owls. 
For her wound is incurable, it is come even to Judah. 
It runneth to the plate of My people. 
Even to Jerusalem. 


Declare ye it not in Gath, weep ye not at all! 

In the house of Aphrah,- roll ye in the dust! 
Pass on, thou womanof Saphir in nakedness and shame! 
He shall take from you the standing-place therof. 
For the dweller in Haroth waiteth anxiously for good; 
But from Yahweh evil cometh unto the gates of Jerusalem. 


Bind the chariot to swift steeds, O dweller in Lachish! 
She was the beginner of sin to the daughter of Zion. 
For the offenses of Israel are found in thee, 
Therefore shalt thou give a parting-gift to Moresh-Gath. 
The houses of Achzib shall be deceitful things 
To the kings of Israel. 


288 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET MICAH 289 


Yet will I bring thee an heir, O inhabitant of Mareshah; 
The glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam. 
Make thee bald and poll thee for thy delicate children; 
Make thee bald as the eagle, 
For they go from thee into exile. 


Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! 
When the morning is light they act, since it is in their power. 
They covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them. 

Thus they oppress a man and his house, 

Yea, a man and his heritage. 

Therefore thus saith Yahweh: 
Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, 

From which ye shall not save your necks. 
Neither shall ye walk haughtily, for it shall be an evil time. 


In that day shall they take up a parable against you, 
And lament with a doleful lamentation, and say: 
We are utterly ruined; He changeth the portion of my people. 
How He hath removed it from me! 
Instead of restoring our fields, he divideth them. 
Therefore thou shalt have none to cast a lot 
In the congregation of Yahweh. 


Prophesy not! say they to the prophets. 
They will not be prophesied to that they need not be shamed. 
O thou that is called the House of Jacob! 
Is the Spirit of Yahweh bound? 
Are these His ways? 
Do not My words do good to him that walketh aright? 
But of late, My people is risen up as an enemy; 
With the mantle, ye strip away the garment 
From men that are passing quietly, as those averse to contention. 
The women of My people have ye cast out 
From their pleasant houses; 
From their young children ye take away My glory forever. 


Arise now and get you gone, for this is no place to rest! 
Because of its foulness, 
It shall destroy you with a great destruction. 


II. AGAINST THE CRIMES OF THOSE IN HIGH PLACES 
(Ch. iii, 1-12) 


Hear now, ye heads of Jacob 
And ye judges of the House of Israel! 
Ought ye not to know justice, 
Ye haters of good, and lovers of evil? 
Who strip off My people’s skin, and their flesh from their bones; 
Who devour My people’s flesh, 
Break their bones and chop them in pieces, 
Like that which is in the pot, like meat in the cooking-pot. 


Then will they cry to Yahweh, but He will not answer; 
Yea, then will He hide His face from them 
According to the evil of their doings. 


Thus saith Yahweh to the prophets that make my people to err, 
That ery: Peace! when they have anything between their teeth; 
And whoso putteth not into their mouths, 
Against him they prepare war. 


290 


THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Therefore it shall be night unto you that ye shall have no vision, 
And it shall be dark unto you that ye may not divine. 
And the sun shall go down upon the prophets 
And the day shall be dark over them; 
And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners baffled. 
They shall cover their lips, for Yahweh shall return no answer. 


But I, verily, am full of power, of justice and might, 
By the Spirit of Yahweh, 

To declare unto Jacob his transgression, 
And to Israel his sin. 


Hear this, I pray you, ye Heads of the House of Jacob, 
And ye Rulers of the House of Israel! 
That abhor justice and pervert all equity; 
That build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 
And her prophets divine for money; yet they lean upon Yahweh. 
And say: Is not Yahweh in the midst of us? 
No evil shall come upon us! 


Therefore, for your sake, shall Zion be ploughed as a field, 
And Jerusalem! She shall become heaps of ruins, 
And the mount of Yahweh’s House as the high forest-places. 


III. AN EXHORTATION TO REPENTANCE AND COURAGE 
(Ch. iv, 9-14) 


Now, why dost thou ery out aloud? 
Is there no king in thee? Is thy counsellor perished, 
That pangs have taken thee as of a woman in travail? 
Be in pain and labor to bring forth, 
O daughter of Zion, as doth a woman in travail. 
For now thou shalt go forth from the city, 
And shalt dwell in the field. 
There shalt thou be rescued, there shall Yahweh redeem thee 
From the hand of thine enemies. 


And now many nations are assembled against thee, 
They say: Let her be defiled, and let our eye gaze on Zion! 
But they know not the thoughts of Yahweh, 
Neither understand they His counsel; 
For He hath gathered them as sheaves to the threshing-floor. 


Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion! 
For I will make thy horns iron, I will make thy hoofs brass, 
And thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples. 
And thou shalt devote their gain unto Yahweh. 
And consecrate their substance unto the Lord of the earth. 


Now, gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops! 
They have laid siege against us. 
They smite the Judge of Israel 
With a rod upon the cheek. 


THE POEMS OF THE PROPHET MICAH 291 


IV. Two FRAGMENTS ATTRIBUTABLE TO MICAH? 
(Ch. vi, 1-4b; vv. 6, 8) 


Hear ye now what Yahweh saith! 
Arise, contend thou before the mountains, 
And let the hills hear thy voice. 
Hear, O ye mountains, Yahweh's controversy, 
And ye enduring rocks, the foundations of the earth. 
For Yahweh hath a controversy with His people, 
And He will plead with Israel. 


O My people, what have I done unto thee, 
And wherein have I wearied thee? 
Testify against Me. 
For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, 
And redeemed thee out of the house of bondage. 


* * ** * 


Wherewith shall I come before Yahweh, 
And bow myself before God on high? 


* * *K * 


It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, 
And what Yahweh doth require of thee; 
Only to do justly, and love mercy, 
And to walk humbly with thy God. 
1 The rest of the ‘‘Book of Micah,” viz., chapters five and seven, are indisputably post- 
exilic, although some fragments of Micah’s sayings may be preserved in them; to this period 


alsc belong the few lines omitted from chapters two and three, and most of chapter four. 
All these passages will be found in Part II. 


SUPPLEMENT TO J’S HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE 
OF ISRAEL 


BY JE, COMPILER OF THE WORKS OF J AND E 


SECTION I.—The death of Jeroboam II, king of Israel, and the accesion 
of Azariah (Uzziah) to the throne of Judah. The swift succession 
of usurpers in Israel. The reign of Pekah (Pekaiah?) and the first 
invasion by Assyria. The reigns of Jotham and Ahaz in Judah. 
Hoshea reigns in Israel. The second invasion of Assyria; the siege 
of Samaria, and the fall of the Northern Kingdom (2 Ki. xv- XVil.) 
Materials: Chiefly the “Chronicles” of the kings of Judah and of 
Israel, constantly referred to by JE; but evidently also, accounts 
a see himself and others; probably too the Temple 

ecords. 


Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his 
might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath for 
Judah in Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the 
kings of Israel? And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the 
kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned in his stead.” 

In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, began 
Azariah son of Amaziah, king of Judah, to reign. Sixteen years old was 
he when he began to reign; and he reigned two and fifty years in Jeru- 
salem; and his mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did 
right in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his father Amaziah 
had done. But Yahweh smote the king so that he was a leper to the 
day of his death; and he dwelt in a house apart. And Jotham, the 
king’s son was over the household, judging the people of the land. Now 
the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written 
in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Azariah slept 
with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of 
David; and Jotham his son reigned in his stead. 

In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah 
the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months. And Shal- 
lum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the 
people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. Now the rest of the acts 
of Zechariah; behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of 
the Kings of Israel. This was the word of Yahweh which He spake 
unto Jehu, saying: Thy sons to the fourth generation shall sit upon 
the throne of Israel. And so it came to pass. 

1 As E wrote only of the earlier acts of Jeroboam, it is presumable that he died before 
him, and it was left to JE to record his death. The apparent abruptness of the above 
opening is therefore due to the fact that JE was merely continuing the formule he had 


used before in trying to combine and synchronize the works of J and E. See table of 
Kings in Story of Elisha, p. 245. 
292 


SUPPLEMENT TO J’S HISTORY BY JE 293 


Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and twentieth 
year of Uzziah (Azariah) king of Judah; and he reigned the space of a 
month in Samaria. And Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah 
and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, 
and reigned in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Shallum and the 
conspiracy that he made, behold, they are written in the book of the 
Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 

Then Menahem smote Tiphsah and all that were therein, because 
they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women with 
child he ripped up. In the nine and twentieth year of Azariah, king 
of Judah, began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel; and he 
reigned ten years in Samaria. There came against the land Pul [Tiglath 
Pileser III]. the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand 
talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the king- 
dom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of 
all the mighty men of wealth, of each man twenty shekels of silver to 
give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and 
stayed not there in the land. Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, 
and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of 
the kings of Israel? And Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekaiah 
his son reigned in his stead.* In the fiftieth year of Azariah, king of 
Judah, Pekaiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in 
Samaria; and he reigned two years. And Pekah the son of Remaliah, 
his captain, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the 
castle of the king’s house, by Argob and by Arieh; and with him were 
fifty men of the Gileadites; and he slew him, and reigned in his stead. 
Now the rest of the acts of Pekaiah, and all that he did, behold, they 
are written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 

In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah the son 
of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty 
years. In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, came Tiglath Pileser, king 
of Assyria, and took Ijon and Abel-beth-Maacah, and Janoah and Kedesh 
and Hazor, and Gilead, all the land of Napthtali; and he carried them 
captive to Assyria. 

And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the 
son of Remaliah and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, 
in the twentieth year of Jotham fhe son of Uzziah. Now the rest of 
the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the 
book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 

In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, began Jotham the 
son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign. Five and twenty years old was he 
when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and 
his mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. And he did 
that which was right in the sight of Yahweh; he did according to all 
that his father Uzziah had done. He built the upper gates of the House 
of Yahweh. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are 
they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 

In those days Yahweh began to send against the house of Judah 
Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah. And Jotham 
slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of 
David his father; and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead. 

In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son 
of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. Twenty years old was Ahaz 


1J%t is generally doubted whether there was ever a king Pekaiah, or whether the name 
was not due to a scribal error, followed up by the ordinary formula. As yet there is no 
proof on either side. We have not those chronicles. 


294 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and 
he did not that which was right in the sight of Yahweh his God, like 
David his father, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; 
yea, and he made his son to pass through fire, according to the abomi- 
nations of the heathen whom Yahweh cast out from before the Children 
of Israel. Then Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah son of Remaliah, king 
of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to war; and they besieged Ahaz, but 
could not overcome him. At that time, Rezin king of Aram, recovered 
Elath for Aram, and drove the Israelites from Elath; and the Edomites 
came to Elath, and dwell there unto this day. 

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglah Pileser, king of Assyria, saying: 
I am thy servant and thy son. Come up and save me out of the hand 
of the king of Aram, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise 
up against me.. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in 
the house of Yahweh and in the treasure of the king’s house, and sent it 
for a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened 
unto him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took 
it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. 

And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of 
Damascus, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent 
to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it, accord- 
ing to all the workmanship thereof. And Urijah the priest built an 
altar; according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so did 
Urijah the priest make it against the coming of king Ahaz from 
Damascus. And when the king was come from Damascus, the king 
saw the altar; and the king drew near unto the altar, and offered 
thereon. And he offered his burnt-offering and his meal-offering, and 
poured his drink-offering, and dashed the blood of the peace-offerings 
against the altar. And the brazen altar which was before Yahweh, he 
brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and 
the House of Yahweh, and put it on the south side of his altar. And 
King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying: Upon the great 
altar offer the morning burnt-offering and the evening meal-offering, 
and the king’s burnt-offering and his meal-offering with the burnt- 
offering of all the people of the land, and their meal-offerings and 
their drink-offerings; and dash against it all the blood of the burnt- 
offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the brazen altar shall 
be for me to look to. Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that 
king Ahaz commanded. ; 

And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the 
laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen 
that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone. And the covered 
place for the sabbath that they had built in the house and the king’s 
entry without, turned he unto the House of Yahweh because the king 
of Assyria. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not 
written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Ahaz 
slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of 
David. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead. 

In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah began Hoshea the son 
of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 
Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Hoshea became 
his servant, and made him presents. But the king of Assyria found 
conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, 
and offered no present to the king of Assyria as he had before done year 
by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in 


SUPPLEMENT TO J’S HISTORY BY JE 295 


prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, 
and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. In the ninth 
year of king Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried 
Israel away unto Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor on 
the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 

And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cutha, 
and from Avva and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and placed them 
in the cities of Samaria instead of the Children of Israel; and they pos- 
sessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. And so it was at the 
beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not Yahweh; there- 
fore Yahweh sent lions among them which killed some of them. 
Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying: The nations 
which thou-hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not 
the manner of the God of the land; therefore He hath sent lions among 
them; and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner 
of the God of the land. 

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying: Carry thither one 
of the priests whom ye brought from thence, and let them go and 
dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the 
land. So, one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria 
came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them how they should reverence 
Yahweh. Howbeit, every nation made gods of their own, and put them 
in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, each 
nation in the city wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon made 
Succoth-bemoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of 
Hamath made Niblas and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burnt their chil- 
dren in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of the 
Sepharvaim. So they feared Yahweh, and served their own gods, after 
the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried 
away. Unto this day, they do after their former manners. 


Section IT.—The Reign of Hezekiah in Judah. His care for the worship 
of Yahweh alone. His successful campaign against the Philistines. 
A second and fuller account of the fall of the Kingdom of Israel. 
The Invasion of Judah by Sennacherib. Details of his campaign, 
and its end. The appearance of Isaiah the prophet as counsellor of 
the king. Hezekiah’s illness. The embassy from Babylon upon his 
recovery; the king’s imprudence in displaying his treasures, and 
Isaiah’s foresight of the result. Death of Hezekiah and accession of 
Manasseh. (2 Kings, xvili-xx.) 

Materials: From the “Chronicles of the Kings of Judah” combined 
with two remarkable accounts, from different hands, of the As- 
syrian invasion. 


Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of 
Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 
Twenty and five years? old was he when he began to reign; and he 
reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name 
was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did right in the sight of 
Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done. He brake in 
pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto those days the 
Children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan (a 
thing of brass). He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; for he clave 


1A mistake of the editor. Hezekiah was at his accession certainly under twenty; some 
say but fifteen years of age. 


296 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


to Yahweh; he departed not from following Him, but kept His com- 
mandments which Yahweh had commanded Moses. And Yahweh was 
with him; whithersoeyer he went forth he prospered. He smote the 
Philistines to Gaza and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watch- 
men to the fortified city. 

And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was 
the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, 
king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it. And at the 
end of three years they took it; even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, 
which was the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 
And the king of Assyria carried Israel away unto Assyria and put them 
in Halah, and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the 
Medes; because they hearkened not to the voice of Yahweh their God, 
but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh 
commanded, and would not hear it nor do it. 

And it came to pass that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up 
against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah, 
king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying: I have 
offended; return from me; that which thou puttest on me, I will bear. 
And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, three 
hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave 
him all the silver which was found in the House of Yahweh and in the 
treasures of the king’s house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold 
from the doors of the temple of Yahweh, and from the doorposts which 
he had overland, and gave it to the king of Assyria. 

*And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king 
Hezekiah with a great force unto Jerusalem. And he took up his posi- 
tion by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the 
fuller’s field. And there went out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah 
who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joab the son 
of Asaph, the recorder. 

And the Rab-shakeh said unto them: Say, I pray you, unto Hezekiah: 
Thus saith the king of Assyria: What is this confidence that thou dost 
cherish? Thinkest thou that a mere word of the lips is counsel and 
strength for war? Now in whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest 
against me? Surely thou dost trust in the staff of that splintered reed, 
even upon Egypt, whereon, if a man lean, it wil run into his hand and 
pierce it. So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, unto all that trust in him. 

Now, therefore, I pray thee, make a wager with my master the king 
of Assyria: I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy 
part to set riders upon them. How then canst thou repel the onset of 
one captain, even of the least of my master’s servants? And yet thou 
puttest thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen. Have I now 
come up against this land without Yahweh to destroy it? Yahweh Him- 
self said unto me: Go up against that land, and destroy it. 

Then said Eliakim ang Shebna and Joab unto the Rab-shakeh: 
Speak, we pray, to thy servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and 
speak not with us in Hebrew in the ears of the people that are on the 
wall. But the Rab-shakeh said unto them: Is it to thy master and to 
thee that my master hath sent me to speak these words? Is it not to 
the men that sit on the wall that he hath sent me, and to those who will 
be compelled to eat and drink filthy food with you? Then the Rab- 
shakeh stood forth, and cried with a loud voice and said in Hebrew: 
Hear ye the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus saith the 


1The first account of Sennacherib’s frustrated attempt to take Jerusalem. 


SUPPLEMENT TO J’S HISTORY BY JE 297 


king: Let not Hezekiah beguile you; for he is not able to rescue you 
out of his hand; and let not Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying: 
Yahweh will surely rescue us, and this city will not be given into the 
hand of the king of Assyria. Hearken not to Hezekiah; for thus saith 
the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me, and come out to me; 
and ye shall eat, every one, of his own vine and of his fig-tree, and 
every one shall drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and 
take you away to a land like your own land, a land of wheat and new 
wine, a land of olive-yards and vineyards, of bread and of honey, that ye 
may live and not die. 

But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word; for 
the king’s commandment was: Answer him not. Then came Eliakim 
the son of Hilkiah, the governor of the palace, and Shebna the scribe, 
and Joab the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes 
rent; and told him the words of the Rab-shakeh. 

And when king Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes and covered 
himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh. And he 
sent Eliakin, the governor of the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and the 
elders of the priests unto Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And 
they said unto him: Thus saith Hezekiah: This is a day of trouble and 
of rebuke and of contumely, for children are come to the birth, and 
there is no strength to bring forth. It may be that Yahweh thy God 
will hear all the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria 
his master hath sent to taunt the living God, and will punish the words 
which Yahweh, thy God, hath heard. Wherefore, make prayer for the 
remnant which is left. 

So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah; and Isaiah said 
unto them: Thus shall ye say to your master: Thus saith Yahweh: 
Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants 
of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Surely I will strike him 
with a groundless fright, that when he shall hear a rumor of ill, he 
shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword 
in his own land. 

Then the Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria still 
at Lachish. And he heard say of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia: Behold, 
he is come out to fight against thee; and when he heard that, he departed. 
So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, returned and dwelt at Nineveh. And as 
he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and 
Sarezer, his sons, slew him with the sword. But they escaped into the 
land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his stead. 


(SECOND ACCOUNT OF THE WITHDRAWAL OF SENNACHERIB) 


And Sennacherib was warring at Libnah; and he sent messengers to 
Hezekiah saying: . .. . Let not thy God in whom thou trustest 
deceive thee, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the 
king of Assyria. Behold, thou thyself hast heard what the kings of 
Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly; and shalt thou 
be delivered? Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed 
deliver them,—Gozan, and Haran, and Reseph, and the Edenites in Telas- 
sar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the 
king of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivva? Which among all the gods of 
these countries have rescued their land out of my hand, that Yahweh 
should rescue Jerusalem out of my hand? 

And Hezekiah took the letter out of the hand of the messengers, and 


298 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


read it, and went up to the House of Yahweh. And Hezekiah spread it 
before Yahweh and prayed, saying: O Yahweh, the God of Israel, that 
sittest upon the cherubim! Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all 
the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline 
Thine ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Thine eyes, O Yahweh, and see; 
and hear the message of Sennacherib, wherewith he would insult the 
Living God. Of a truth, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid 
waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the 
fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and 
stone. Therefore they could destroy them. Now, therefore, O Yahweh, 
our God, save Thou me, I beseech Thee, out of his hand, that all the 
kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou, Yahweh, Thou alone art 
God. 

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying: Thus saith 
Yahweh, the God of Israel: Whereas thou hast prayed to Me concern- 
ing Sennacherib, king of Assyria, thus saith Yahweh concerning the 
king of Assyria: 

He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, 
Nor come before it with a shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 
For I will guard this city that I may save it 
For Mine own Name’s sake, 
And for the sake of David, My servant. 


And it came to pass that night, that the messenger of Yahweh went 
forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore 
and five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all 
those men were stark dead.) 

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, 
the son of Amoz, came to him and said unto him: Thus saith Yahweh: 
Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he 
turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Yahweh, saying: Remem- 
ber now, O Yahweh, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in 
truth and with a whole heart, and have done that which is good in Thy 
sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, before Isaiah was 
gone out of the gate, that the word of Yahweh came to him, saying: 
Return, and say to Hezekiah, the prince of My people: Thus saith Yah- 
weh, the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I have 
seen thy tears, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up into 
the house of Yahweh. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and 
I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; 
and I will defend this city for Mine own sake, and for My servant 
David’s sake. And Isaiah said: Take a cake of figs. And they took it 
and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 

And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah: What shall be the sign that Yahweh 
will heal me, and that I shall go up unto the house of Yahweh.the third 
day. And Isaiah said: This shall be the sign unto thee from Yahweh, 
that Yahweh will do the thing that He hath spoken; shall the shadow 
go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah an- 
swered: It is a light thing for the shadow to decline ten degrees: 
nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the 
prophet cried unto Yahweh; and He brought the shadow ten degrees 
backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz. 

At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, 
sent a letter and a present unto Hezekiah; for he had heard that Heze- 
kiah had been sick. And Hezekiah had pleasure in this, and showed them — 
his treasure-house, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the 


SUPPLEMENT TO J’S HISTORY BY JE 299 


precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his 
stores; there was nothing in his house nor in his dominion that Heze- 
kiah showed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Heze- 
kiah, and said unto him: What said these men, and from whence came 
they unto thee? And Hezekiah said: They are come from a far coun- 
try, even from Babylon. And he said: What have they seen in thine 
house? And Hezekiah answered: All that is in my house have they 
seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. 

Then Isaiah said unto Hezekiah: Hear the word of Yahweh: Be- 
hold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy 
fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried to Babylon; 
nothing shall be left, saith Yahweh. And of thy sons that shall issue 
from thee they shall take away; and they shall be officers in the palace 
of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah: Good is the 
word of Yahweh which thou hast spoken. He said, moreover: Is it 
not so, if peace and truth shall be in my days? 

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he 
made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they 
not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And 
Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his 
stead.” 

1The last three chapters (ch. xviii-xx, A .V.), with the exception of two verses in 
ch. xviii and some slight changes in phraseology in the other two, are also found in the 
Book of Isaiah, (A. V. ch. xxxvi-xxxix), where they form a transition from the works 
formerly all attributed to the prophet of the eighth century to the treasury of poems by 
unknown writers of the exilic and post exilic ages, (ch. xl-lxvi). It is barely possible that 
they were collected and inserted in his compilation by JE, for there are indications that 
he lived until the age of Manasseh; but the vivid realism of the dialogue in ch. xviii, and 
the noble prayer of Hezekiah in ch. xx, could not have been from his pen. They are now 
held by many scholars to be by different Deuteronomists; but they are retained here since 


the question is still not decided. On the other hand, the ‘‘Poem of Derision’’ on Senna- 
cherib (ch. xix, 21-31), is certainly post-exilic, and is therefore omitted. 


HISTORY OF THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 


FROM THE REIGN OF MANASSEH TO THE EXILE (698-584 B.C.) 
COMPILED By P.? 
(2 Kings ux xx yy) 
Materials: Chronicles of the kings of Judah, Temple Reccrds, Biography 


of Jeremiah, and the narratives of eye-witnesses of the events 
handed down from father to son. 


Manasseh was twelve years,old when he began to reign, and he 
reigned five and fifty years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was 
Hephzibah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, 
after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out 
before the Children of Israel. For he built again the high places which 
his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal, 
and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all 
the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the House 
of Yahweh, whereof Yahweh had said: In Jerusalem have I put My 
name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts 
of the House of Yahweh. And he made his son to pass through fire, and 
practised soothsaying, and used enchantments, and appointed them that 
divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit; he wrought much evil in the sight 
of Yahweh, to provoke Him. And he set the graven image of the Ash- 
erah he had made, in the house of which Yahweh had said to David and 
to Solomon his son: In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have 
chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put My name for ever; 
neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the 
land which I gave to their fathers; if only they will observe to do 
according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all 
the law that My servant Moses commanded them. But they hearkened 
not; and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than did 
the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the Children of Israel. 

And Yahweh spake by His servants the prophets, saying: Because 
Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done 
wickedly above all that the Amorites did that were before him, and 
hath made Judah also to sin with his idols; therefore thus saith Yahweh, 
the God of Israel. Behold, I bring much evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, 
that whosoever shall hear of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will 
stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the 
house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, 
wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will cast off the remnant of 
Mine inheritance, and deliver them. into the hand of their enemies; be- 
cause they have done that which is evil in My sight, and have provoked 

1P may stand for one writer or many. Possibly they may have been a self-perpetu- 
ating committee, appointed by the Sanhedrim at the beginning of the Persian period to 


arrange the Canon. It is certain that many additions were made even after the LXX 
translation had been completed, 
300 


HISTORY OF THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 301 


Me since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this 
day. 

Beet cove: Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled 
Jerusalem from one end to the other, besides his sin wherewith he made 
Judah to sin in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh. Now 
the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he 
sinned, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of 
Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the 
garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzzah; and Amon his son 
reigned in his stead. 

Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign; and he 
reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Meshulle- 
meth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. And he did that which was evil 
in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father. And he walked in 
all the way that his father had walked in, and served the idols that 
his father had served, and worshipped them. And he forsook Yahweh, 
the God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of Yahweh. 

And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and put the king 
to death in his own house. But the people of the land slew all them 
that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made 
Josiah his son king in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Amon 
which he did, are they not written in the Chronicles of the Kings of 
Judah? And he was buried in the sepulchre in the garden of Uzzah 
and Josiah his son reigned in his stead. 

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned 
thirty and one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jedidah, 
the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did that which was right 
in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in all the way of David his father, 
and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. 

And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the 
king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam the scribe, 
to the House of Yahweh, saying: Go up to Hilkiah the high-priest, that 
he may sum the money which is brought into the house of Yahweh, 
which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people; and let them 
deliver it into the hand of the workmen that have the oversight of the 
House of Yahweh; and let them give it to the workmen that are in the 
House of Yahweh to repair the breaches of the house; unto the carpen- 
ters, and to the builders, and to the masons; and for buying timber and 
hewn stone to repair the house. Howbeit there was no reckoning made 
with them of the money that was delivered into their hand; for they 
dealt faithfully. 

And Hilkiah the high-priest said unto Shaphan the scribe: I have 
found the Book of the Law in the house of Yahweh. And Hilkiah de- 
livered the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe 
came unto the king, and reported unto the king, and said: Thy servants 
have poured out the money that was found in the house, and have 
delivered it into the hand of the workmen that have oversight of the 
house of Yahweh. And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying:  Hil- 
kiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before 
the king. And it came to pass when the king had heard the words of 
the Book of the Law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded 
Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son 
of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, the king’s servant, 
saying: Go ye, inquire of Yahweh for me, and for the people, and for 
all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great 


302 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


is the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us, because our fathers 
have net hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according to all 
that which is written concerning us. 

So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and 
Asaiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son 
of Tikvah, the son of Harbas, keeper of the wardrobe,—now she dwelt 
in Jerusalem in the second quarter—and they spake with her. And she 
said unto them: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: Tell ye the 
man that sent you unto me: Thus saith Yahweh: Behold, I will bring 
evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the 
words of the book which the king of Judah hath read; because they 
have forsaken Me, and have offered unto other gods, that they might 
provoke Me with all the work of their hands; therefore My wrath shall 
be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched. But unto 
the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus shall ye say 
to him: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: As touching the 
words which thou hast heard; because thy heart was tender, and thou 
didst humble thyself before Yahweh, when thou heardest what I spake 
against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should 
become an astonishment and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes and 
wept before Me, I also have heard thee, saith Yahweh. Therefore be- 
hold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy 
grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil which I will 
bring upon this place. And they brought back word unto the king. 

And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah 
and of Jerusalem. And the king went up to the House of Yahweh, and 
all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and 
the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; 
and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant, 
which was found in the house of Yahweh. And the king stood on the 
platform, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh and 
to keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with 
all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that 
were written in this book; and all the people stood to the covenant. 

And the king commanded Hilkiah the high-priest, and the priests of 
the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the 
temple of Yahweh all the vessels that were made for Baal and for the 
Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them without 
Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto 
Beth-el. And he put down the idolatrous priests whom the kings of 
Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of 
Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that offered 
unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all 
the host of heaven. And he brought out the Asherah from the House of 
Yahweh without Jerusalem unto the brook Kidron, and stamped it 
small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the 
common people. And he broke down the houses of the sodomites that 
were in the House of Yahweh, where the women wove coverings for the 
Asherah. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and 
defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba 
to Beer-sheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates at the 
entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on 
a man’s left hand as he entered the gate of the city. (Neverthe- 
less the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of Yahweh 
in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened bread among their brethren.) 


HISTORY OF THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 303 


And he defiled Topheth which is in the valley of the sons of 
Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through 
the fire to Molech. And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah 
had given to the sun, at the entrance of the House of Yahweh, by the 
chamber of Nethan-melech, the officer which was in the precincts; and 
he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. And the altars that were 
on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had 
made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of 
the House of Yahweh, did the king break down and beat them down from 
thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the high 
places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of 
the mount of corruption, which Solomon had built for Ashtoreth the 
abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the 
Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites, did the 
king defile. And he brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Ash- 
erim, and filled their places with the bones of men. 

Moreover, the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which 
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made; even that 
altar and the high place he brake down, and he burned the high place 
and stamped it small to powder, and burned the Asherah. And as Josiah 
turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount; 
and he sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them 
upon the altar and defiled it, according to the word of Yahweh, which 
the man of God proclaimed who prophesied these things. Then he said: 
What monument is that which I see? And the men of the city told him: 
It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Judah and 
prophesied these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el. 
And he said: Let him be; let no man move his bones. So they let his 
bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. 
And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of 
Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh, Josiah 
took away, and did to them all that he had done in Beth-el. And he 
slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, 
and burned men’s bones upon them. So he returned to Jerusalem. 

And the king commanded all the people, saying: Keep the Passover 
unto Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant. 
And there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges that 
judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings 
of Judah; but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this passover 
kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem. Moreover them that divined by a ghost 
or by a familiar spirit, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the de- 
testable things that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, 
did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words.of the law which 
were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the House of 
Yahweh. And like him was there no king before him, that turned to 
Yahweh with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, 
according to the law of Moses; neither after him was there any like him. 

Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not 
written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his 
days, Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of As- 
syria to the river Euphrates, and king Josiah went against him; and he 
slew him at Megiddo. . . . And his servants carried him in a chariot 
dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in 
his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son 
of Josiah, and anointed him and made him king in his father’s stead. 


304 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and 
he reigned three months in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Ha- 
mutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which 
was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had 
done. And Pharaoh-Necho put him in bonds at Riblah that he might 
not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a fine of a hundred talents 
of silver, and a talent of gold. And Pharaoh-Necho made Eliakim the 
son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and changed his 
name to Jehoiakim; but he took Jehoahaz away; and he came to Egypt 
and died there. And Jehoiakim gave the gold and the silver to Pharaoh; 
but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment 
of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the 
land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it to Pharaoh-Necho. 

Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, . 
and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was 
Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. And he did that which 
was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had 
done. In his days Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up, and Je- 
hoiakim became his servant three years. Then he turned and rebelled 
against him. And Yahweh sent aganist him bands of the Chaldzans, and 
bands of the Arameans, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the 
children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, accord- 
ing to the word of Yahweh which He spake by the hand of His servants 
the prophets. Surely at the commandment of Yahweh came this upon 
Judah to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh accord- 
ing to all that he did; and also for all the innocent blood that he shed; 
for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not 
pardon. 

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they 
not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? So 
Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his 
stead. And the king of Egypt came not again out of his land; for the 
king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt unto the river 
Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt. 

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he 
reigned in Jerusalem three months; and his mother’s name was Nehushta 
the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil 
in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his father had done. At 
that time, the servants of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came up to 
Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadrezzar, king of 
Babylon, came unto the city while his servants were besieging it. And 
Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and 
his mother, and her servants, and his princes, and his officers; and the 
king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. And he 
carried out thence all the treasures of the House of Yahweh, and the 
treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold 
Which Solomon, king of Israel, had made for the temple of Yahweh, as 
Yahweh had said. And he earried away all Jersualem,—all the 
princes and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and 
all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained save the poorest sort 
of the people of the land. And he carried away to Babylon Jehoiachin, 
and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives and his officers and the chief 
men of the land carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 
And all the men of might, even seven thousand, all of them strong and. 
apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. 


HISTORY OF THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH 305 


And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father’s brother, king 
in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah. 

Zedekiah! was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, 
and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was 
Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was 
evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 
For through the anger of Jahweh did it come to pass in Jerusalem and 
Judah, until He had cast them out from His presence. 

And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And it came to 
pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day 
of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all 
his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built 
forts against it round about. So the city was besieged until the eleventh 
year of king Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month the 
famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people 
of the land. Then a breach was made into the city, and all the men of 
war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls which 
was by the king’s garden (now the Chald#ans were close to the city 
round about), and the king went by the way of the Arabah. But the 
army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in 
the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. Then 
they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; 
and they gave judgment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah 
before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in 
fetters, and carried him to Babylon. 

Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which 
was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebu- 
zaradan, the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto 
Jerusalem. And he burnt the House of Yahweh, and the king’s house; 
and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great man’s house, burnt 
he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldseans that were with the 
captain of the guard-temple, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round 
about. And the residue of the people that were left in the city, and 
those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue 
of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carry away 
captive. But the captain left of the poorest of the land to be vine- 
dressers and husbandmen. 

And the pillars of brass that were in the House of Yahweh, and the 
bases and the brazen sea that were in the House of Yahweh, did the 
Chaldeeans break in pieces and carry the brass of them to Babylon. And 
the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the pans, and all the vsesels 
of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away. And the fire-pans 
and the basins, that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of 
silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away. The two pillars, 
the one sea, and the bases which Solomon made for the House of Yahweh, 
the brass of these vessels was beyond weight. The height of the one 
pillar was eighteen cubits, and a capital of brass was upon it, and the 
height of the capital was three cubits, with network and pomegranates 
upon the capital round about, all of brass; and like unto these had the 
second pillar with network. 

And the captain of the guard took Seraiah, the chief priest, and 
Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door; and out 


1 The concluding chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, A. V. is taken almost verbatim either 
from this account in 2 Kings (ch. xxiv, 18-xxv, 30) or from the records used by the his- 
torian. For fuller details of the siege and the events following the sack of the city, see 
Jer, ch, xxxix-xliv, A. V. or Booklet VI of this edition. 


306 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war; and 
five men of them that saw the king’s face, who were found in the city; 
and the scribe of the captain of the host, who numbered the people of 
the land; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found 
in the city. And Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them, and 
brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. And the king of Baby- 
lon slew them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. 

So Judah was carried away captive out of his land. And as for the 
people that were left in the land of Judah whom Nebuchadrezzar, king 
of Babylon, had left, over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ohikam, the 
son of Shaphan, governor. 

Now when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard 
that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Ge- 
daliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the 
son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and Jaazaniah the 
son of the Maacathite, they and their men. And Gedaliah sware to them, 
and to their men, and said unto them: Fear not because of the servants 
of the Chaldwans. Dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, 
and it shall be well with you. , 

But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of 
Nethaniah the son of Elishama of the seed royal, came, and ten men 
with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chal- 
deans that were with him at Mizpah. And all the people, great and 
small, and the captains of the forces, arose and came to Egypt; for they 
were afraid of the Chald#ans. 

Now it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity 
of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and 
twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the 
year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin, king of 
Judah, out of prison. And he spake kindly unto him, and set his throne 
above the thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon. And he 
changed his prison garments, and did eat bread before him continually 
all the days of his life. And for his allowance, there was a continual 
allowance given him of the king, every day a portion, all the days of 
his life. 


THE 
GOLDEN AGE OF HEBREW LITERATURE 


SECOND PERIOD 
FROM ZEPHANIAH’S WARNING OF A WORLD-WIDE DOOM 


TO THE PROPHECY OF ISRAEL'S WORLD-WIDE MISSION 


THE POEM OF ZEPHANIAH, “THE DAY OF YAHWEH” 
THE BOOK OF THE LAW (DEUTERONOMY) BY D. 
THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 
’ THE PRAISE OF: WISDOM 
THE POEMS OF NAHUM ON THE FALL OF NINEVEH 
THE POEM OF HABAKKUK 


THE TWO “POEMS OF THE SERVANT” 





THE POEM OF THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH 


THE DAY OF YAHWEH 


Part I. Irs IMMINENT ADVENT 
LOne), tne-0eo- 13) 


Hold thy peace at the presence of Yahweh, 
For the Day of Yehweh is at hand, 
For Yahweh hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath bidden His guests. 


I will utterly consume everything from off the land, saith Yahweh. 
I will take away the fowls of heaven and the fishes of the sea. 
The stumbling-blocks with the wicked, and mankind from the earth. 


I will stretch out My hand upon Judah 
And upon all the dwellers in Jerusalem. 
From this place I will cut off the remnant of Baal, 
The very name of its priests, 

And them who worship on the house-tops the host of heaven, 
And the worshipers of Yahweh who also swear by Malcham; 
Them also who are apostate to Yahweh, who have not sought Him, 

Nor inquired of Yahweh. 


And it shall come to pass in the day of Yaliweh’s sacrifice, 

That I will punish the princes and the king’s children, 
And all those that clothe themselves in foreign apparel. 
I will also punish those who leap over the threshold, 
Who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. 


Hark! a cry from the Fishgate and a wailing from the New Quarter 
And a great crashing from the hills, 
And a wailing from the dwellers in Maktesh. 
For all the merchants are cut down, 
All they that have silver and gold are cut off. 
And I will search Jerusalem with lamps, 
And punish those settled upon their lees; 
That say in their hearts: Yahweh will do us no good; 
Neither will He do evil. 
Therefore their wealth shall become a prey, and their house, 
A desolation. 


For the Day of Yahweh is near; near, and hasteneth greatly; 
The outery of the Day of Yahweh wherein the strong man 
Shall cry bitterly. 
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress; 
A day of destruction and desolation, 
A day of darkness and gloom; 
A day of clouds and thick darkness, 
A day of the trumpet and the alarum 
1 (Superscription by P. Ch. i, 1.) “The word of Yahweh which came to Zephaniah the 


son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days 
of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Israel.” 


309 


310 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Against the fortified cities and against the high battlements. 
And I will bring distress upon men 
That they shall walk as the blind; 
And their blood shall be poured out as dust, 
And their flesh shall be as dung. 
Neither their silver nor their gold shall serve to deliver them 
In the day of the wrath of Yahweh; 
But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy 
For He shall make a speedy riddance of all those 
That dwell in the land. 


Part II. THE RUIN SHALL BE WORLD-WIDE 
(Che ie 426, 87D 671 Oe 1 


Gather yourselves together! 
Yea, gather together, O shameless nations! 
Before the decree is passed that ye shall be as drifting chaff, 
Before the fierce wrath of Yahweh shall come upon you! 
Seek ye Yahweh, all ye meek upon earth, ye who obey His Laws! 
Seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid 
In the day of the wrath of Yahweh. 


For Gaza shall be forsaken, Askelon, a desolation; 
They shall drive out Ashdod at noon, Ekron shall be uprooted. 
Woe to the dwellers by the sea, the nation of the Cherethites! 
The word of Yahweh is against you, O Canaan, land of Philistines! 
I will so destroy thee that there shall be no inhabitant. 
And the sea-coast shall be pastures, meadows for shepherds, 
And folds for flocks. 
In the palace of Askelon shall they lie down in the evening, 
By the sea shall they feed. 


I have heard the taunt of Moab, the reviling of the children of Ammon. 
Wherewith they have taunted My people, 
Magnifying themselves against them. 

Therefore as I live saith Yahweh, the God of Israel, 
Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon 
Like Gomorrah; 

Even salt-pits, the breeding-place of nettles, a desolation forever. 
The residue of My people shall spoil them 
And the remnant of it shall possess Perite 


Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by My sword; 
And He will stretch out His hand against the north, 
And destroy Assyria, 
And will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry as the desert. 
Beasts of every kind shall lie down in the midst of her; 
The pelican and the bittern shall lodge in her lintels. 
Their cries shall be heard in her ruined windows; 
Desolation shall be on her thresholds, 
And the cedar-work thereof shall lie bare. 


This is the joyous city that dwelt without care! 
That said in her heart: 'There is none like unto me! 
How is she become a desolation, a den for jackals! 

Every passer-by shall hiss at her, 
And wag his head. 


THE POEM OF THE PROPHET ZEPHANIAH 311 


Part III. A GLEAM OF HOPE FOR JUDAH 
(Ch. iii, 1-7) 


Woe to her that is filthy and polluted! Woe to the oppressing city! 
She heeded not the warning voice, she accepted no reproof; 

She trusted not in Yahweh; she drew not near to her God. 

Her rulers in her midst are roaring lions; her judges, ravening wolves. 


They leave not a bone for the morrow. 
Her prophets are dissolute and faithless men, 
Her priests profane what is holy. 
And do violence to the Law. 


Yet Yahweh, the Just One, is in her midst, 
He will not do unrighteousness. 
Morning by morning He maketh clear His law, 
He faileth not to do right. 
He saith: I have cut off the nations; destroyed their walls. 
I have laid waste their streets and none pass over them. 
Desolate are their cities, without a man, not an inhabitant. 


Surely thou, (Jerusalem) wilt fear Me! Thou wilt accept rebuke! 
So that her dwelling shall not be destroyed, 
After all I have visited upon her! 
But despite all this, she hath made all her doings corrupt! 


Part IV. A PSALM OF REJOICING’ 
(Ch. iii, 14-20) 
Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! 
Be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! 
Yahweh hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thy foe. 


The king of Israel, even Yahweh, is in the midst of thee. 
Thou shalt not fear evil any more. 


O Zion, let not thy hands be slack; thy God, Yahweh, is in thy midst, 
A Mighty One, who will save. 

He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will love thee in silence, 
He will joy over thee with singing. 


I will gather them that are far from the solemn assembly, 
Who are of thee,—who grieved for the burden of reproach upon it. 
Behold, at that time, I will undo all that afflicted thee. 
And I will succour her that halteth, and rescue her that was outcast. 
And I will cause them to receive praise and a name, 
Whose shame hath been in all the earth. 


1Probably written by Zephaniah after the Great Reformation of Josiah, 621 B.c. 
Vv, 8-13 are evidently post-exilic and therefore omitted. 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 
(DEUTERONOMY) 


SUPERSCRIPTION 
(Ch. i, 1, 4-5) 


These are the words that Moses spake unto all Israel beyond Jordan in 
the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea between Paran 
and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab, after he had slain 
Sihon, the king of the Amorites which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og, 
the king of Bashan which dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrei.* Beyond 
Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying: 


THE EXORDIUM 
(Che-1) 67465019, 1-9 B19 24-37 i ee Ly eons 


Yahweh, our God, spake unto us in Horeb, saying: Ye have dwelt 
long enough in this mount. Turn you and take your journey, and go 
to the mount of the Amorites and all places thereunto in the plain, 
in the hills and in the vale and in the south and by the seaside, to the 
land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon unto the great river, the 
river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and 
possess the land which Yahweh sware unto your forefathers, Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. And 
I spake unto you at that time, saying: I am not able to bear you myself 
alone. Yahweh, your God, hath multiplied you, and behold, ye are this 
day as the stars of heaven for multitude. (May Yahweh, the God of 
your fathers, make you a thousand times as many more, and bless you, 
as He hath promised you!) Howcan I myself alone bear your cumbrance 
and your burden and your strife? Take you wise and intelligent men 
and known among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you. 
And ye answered and said: The thing which thou hast spoken is good. 
So I tock the chief men of your tribes, wise men and full of knowledge, 
and made them heads over you; captains over hundreds and captains 
over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. 
And I charged your judges at that time, saying: Hear the causes be- 
tween your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his 
brother, and the stranger that is with you. Ye shall not respect persons 
in judgment; ye shall hear the small as well as the great. Ye shall 
have no fear of men, for the judgment is God’s. And the cause that is 
too hard for you, bring it to me and I will hear it. And I commanded 
you at that time all the things which you should do. 

And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great 
and terrible wilderness which ye saw, by the way of the hill-country 
of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us. And we came to 


1Vy. 2-8 added by the Redactor are omitted. 
ie 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 313 


Kadesh-barnea. And I said unto you: We are come unto the hill- 
country of the Amorites, which Yahweh, our God, is giving unto us. 
Behold, Yahweh thy God hath set the land before thee; go up and take 
possession, as Yahweh, the God of thy fathers, hath spoken; fear not, 
neither be dismayed. And ye came near unto me, every one of you, 
and said: Let us send men before us that they may search the land 
for us and bring us back word by what way we must go up, and unto 
what cities we shall come. And the saying pleased me well. And I took 
twelve men of you, one for each tribe; and they turned and went up 
into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol and searched it 
out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought 
it down to us; and brought us word and said: It is a good land which 
Yahweh, our God, hath given,us. Yet ye would not go up, but rebelled 
against the commandment of Yahweh, your God; and ye murmured in 
your tents, and said: Because Yahweh hated us, hath He brought us 
forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the 
Amorites to destroy us. Whither are we going up? Our brethren have 
discouraged our heart, saying: The people are greater and taller than 
we; the cities are large, and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have 
seen the sons of the Anakim there. 

Then [said unto you: Fear not, neither be afraid of them. Yahweh, 
your God, which goeth before you, He shall fight for you, according 
to all that He did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilder- 
ness, where thou hast seen how that Yahweh thy God bare thee, as a 
man beareth his son, in all the way that ye went until ye came to this 
place. Yet in this thing ye do not believe Yahweh your God, who went 
in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, 
in fire by night to show you what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day. 

And Yahweh heard the voice of your words and was wroth, and 
sware, saying: Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil 
generation see that good land which I sware to give unto your fathers, 
save Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it; and to him will I 
give the land that he hath trodden upon and to his children, because he 
hath wholly followed Yahweh. Also, Yahweh was angry with me for 
your sakes, saying: Thou also shalt not go thither; Joshua, the son 
of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither; encourage 
thou him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover, your little 
ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children which this day 
have no knowledge of good and evil,—they shall go in thither and unto 
them will I give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn you 
and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. 

Then ye answered and said unto me: We have sinned against Yah- 
weh. We will go up and fight, according unto all that Yahweh our God 
hath commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons 
of war, ye were ready to go up the hill. But Yahweh said unto me: 
Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight, for I am not among you; lest 
ye be smitten by your enemies. So I spake unto you, but ye would 
not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh, and went 
up presumptuously into the hill. And the Amorites which dwelt in 
that mountain came out against you and chased you, as bees do, and 
beat you down in Seir, even unto Hormah. And ye returned and wept 
before Yahweh; but Yahweh would not hearken unto your voice, nor 
give ear unto you. So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto 
the days that ye abode there. 

Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the 


314 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh said unto me; and we compassed Mount 
Seir many days. Then Yahweh spake unto me, saying: Ye have 
compassed this mountain long enough; turn you northward. And com- 
mand thou the people, saying: Ye are to pass through the border of 
your brethren, the Children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they will 
be afraid of you. Take good heed unto yourselves therefore; meddle 
not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much 
as a foot-breadth; for I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a posses- 
sion. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye 
shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink. For Yah- 
weh thy God, hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand. He know- 
eth how thou hast come through this great wilderness; these forty years 
Yahweh, thy God, hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.’ 
Now when we had passed beyond our brethren the Children of Esau, 
who dwelt in Mount Seir, by the way of the plain from Elath even to 
Ezion-geber, we turned and passed by the wilderness of Moab. And 
Yahweh said unto me: Be not at enmity with Moab, neither contend 
with him in battle; for I will not give thee of his land for a possession, 
because I have given Ar unto the Children of Lot for a possession. Rise 
up and get you over the brook Zered. So we went over the brook Zered. 
And the space from the days when we left Kadesh-Barnea until we 
crossed over the brook Zered was thirty and eight years; until all the 
generation of the men of war were wasted out from the host, as Yahweh 
had sworn unto them. Then Yahweh spake unto me, saying: Thou 
art this day to pass over the border of Moab, even Ar. And when thou 
comest nigh over against the Children of Ammon, harass them not, nor 
contend with them; for I will not give thee the land of the Children of 
Ammon for a possession, because I have given it unto the Children of 
Lot for a possession. Rise up, take your journey over the valley of 
Arnon; behold, I have given into thy hand Sihon the Amorite, King of 
Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it and contend with him in battle. 
This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee 
upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven who shall report of 
thee; and they shall tremble and be in anguish because of thee. 
Then I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon 
king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying: Let me pass through 
thy land. I will go by the highway; I will neither turn to the right hand 
nor to the left. Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and 
give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through 
on my feet; as the Children of Esau that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites 
that dwell in Ar did unto me; until I shall pass over the Jordan into the 
land which Yahweh, our God, is giving us. But Sihon, king of Heshbon, 
would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh had hardened his spirit and 
made his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into thy hand, as 
appeareth this day. 
And Yahweh said unto me: Behold, I have begun to deliver up 
1Vv. 10-12 and 20-23 of Chap. ii are evidently interpolations, interrupting the address; 
but they present local traditions too interesting to be omitted, and are therefore given here. 
Vv. 10-12. “The Emim dwelt therein in times past, a people great and many and tall like 
the Anakim; which also were accounted giants (Rephaim) but the Moabites called them 
Anakim. The Horim also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the Children of Esau succeeded 
them when they had destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land 
of their possession which Vahweh gave unto them.” Vv. 20-23. “That also was accounted 
a land of giants; giants dwelt therein of old time, and the Ammonites call them Zam- 
zummim. . . . But Yahweh destroyed them before them (the Ammonites) and they 
succeeded them and dwelt in their stead. As He did to the Children of Esau which dwelt 
in Seir after He had destroyed the Horim before them. . . . And the Avim, which dwelt 


in Hazerim unto Azzah, the Caphtorim which came forth out of Caphtor (Crete) destroyed, 
and dwelt in their stead.”’ 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 315 


Sihon and his land unto thee; begin to possess his land. Then Sihon 
came out against us, he and all his people, unto battle at Jahaz. And 
Yahweh, our God, delivered him up before us, and we smote him and 
his sons and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and 
utterly destroyed every city, the men and the women and the little 
ones; we left none remaining; only the cattle we took unto ourselves 
for a prey, with the spoil of the cities we had taken. From Aroer, 
which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, and from the city that 
is in the valley, even unto Gilead,—there was not a city too high for 
us; Yahweh, our God, delivered them all up before us. Only to the 
land of the Children of Ammon thou camest not near; all the sides of 
the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill-country, and wheresoever 
Yahweh forbade us. 

Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan; and Og the king 
of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, unto battle at 
Edrei. And Yahweh said unto me: Fear him not; for I have delivered 
him and all his people and his land into thine hand; and thou shalt 
do unto him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt 
at Heshbon. So Yahweh, our God, delivered into our hand Og also, the 
king of Bashan, and all his people; and we smote him until none was 
left to him remaining. And we took all his cities at that time; there 
was not a city which we took not from them; three-score cities, all the 
region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan (all these cities were 
fortified cities with high walls, gates and bars), besides unwalled towns 
a great many. And we utterly destroyed them as we did unto Sihon king 
of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men, women and children of every 
city. But all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took for ourselves. 
And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amor- 
ites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto 
Mount Hermon,’ all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan 
unto Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. For only 
Og remained of the remnant of the giants (Rephaim); behold his bed- 
stead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the cities of Ammon? 
Nine cubits the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the 
cubit of aman. And this land which we took possession of at that time, 
from Aroer which is by the river Arnon, and half Mount Gilead and the 
cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and the Gadites. And the rest of. 
Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half-tribe of 
Manasseh; all the region of Argob with all Bashan which was called 
the land of giants.’ male eee 

And I commanded you at that time, saying: Yahweh, your God, hath 
given you this land to possess it. Ye shall pass over armed before your 
brethren the Children of Israel, all that are fit for war. But your wives 
and your little ones and your cattle,—for I know that ye have much 
cattle—shall abide in your cities which I have given you until Yahweh 
have given rest unto your brethren as well as unto you; and until they 
also possess the land which Yahweh your God shall give them beyond 
Jordan. Then shall ye return, every man unto his possession which 
I have given you. 

And I commanded Joshua at that time, saying: Thine eyes have seen 
all that Yahweh, your God, hath done unto these two kings; so shall 
Yahweh do unto all the kingdoms whither thou goest. Ye shall not fear 
them: for Yahweh, your God, He shall fight for you. And I besought 


1V. 10, a gloss, inappropriate to the address, is here omitted. 
2 Vy. 15-17, Statistics, after the manner of P and therefore omitted. 


316 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Yahweh at that time, saying: O God Yahweh! thou hast begun to show 
Thy servant Thy greatness and Thy mighty hand. For what God is 
there in heaven or earth that can do according to Thy works and accord- 
ing to Thy might? I pray Thee, let me go over and see the good land 
that is beyond Jordan, that goodly hill-country and Lebanon! But Yah- 
weh was wroth with me on your account and would not hear me. And 
Yahweh said unto me: Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto Me of 
the matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes 
westward and northward and southward and eastward, and behold it 
with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. But charge 
Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him; for he shall go over before 
this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou 
shalt see. So we abode in the valley over against Beth-Peor. 

Now, therefore, hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the 
judgments which I teach you to do them; that ye may live, and go in 
and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, giveth 
you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither 
shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments 
of Yahweh, your God, which I command you. Your eyes have seen 
what Yahweh did because of Baal-Peor; for all the men that followed 
Baal-Peor did Yahweh thy God destroy from among you. But ye that 
did cleave unto Yahweh your God are alive every one of you this day. 
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Yahweh my 
God commanded me that ye should do in the land whither ye go to pos- 
sess it. Keep therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and your 
understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear of these 
statutes and judgments, and say: Verily, this great nation is a wise 
and understanding people! For what nation is there that hath God so 
nigh unto them as is Yahweh our God, in all that we call upon Him 
for? And what nation hath statutes and judgments so righteous as 
all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed unto thy- 
self, and keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things which 
thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days 
of thy life. And do thou teach them to thy sons and thy sons’ sons; of 
the day thou didst stand before Yahweh, thy God, in Horeb, when Yah- 
weh said unto me: Gather Me the people together; and I will make 
them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that 
they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. 
And ye came and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned 
with fire unto the heart of heaven with darkness, clouds and thick dark- 
ness. And Yahweh spake unto you out of the midst of the fire. Ye 
heard the sound of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a 
voice. And He declared unto you His covenant which He commanded 
you to perform, even the Ten Words; and He wrote them upon two 
tables of stone. 

And Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and 
judgments that ye might do them in the land whither ye are going over 
to possess it. Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves (for ye saw 
no manner of similitude on the day that Yahweh spake unto you in 
Horeb out of the midst of the fire), lest ye corrupt yourselves and make 
you a graven image, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any 
beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in 
the air, the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the like- 
ness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; and lest thou 
lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 317 


moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be induced 
to worship them and serve them, which Yahweh, thy God, hath allotted 
to all nations under the whole heaven. 

But you hath Yahweh taken and brought forth out of the iron 
furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as 
ye are this day. Furthermore, Yahweh was angry with me on your 
account, and sware that I should not go over Jordan—that I should not 
go in unto that good land which Yahweh, thy God, is giving thee for an 
inheritance; but I must die in this land. I must not go over Jordan; 
but ye shall go over and possess that good land. Take heed unto your- 
selves, let ye forget the covenant which Yahweh, your God, made with 
you, and make you a graven image or the likeness of any thing which 
Yahweh, thy God, hath forbidden thee. For Yahweh, thy God, is a 
consuming fire,—a jealous God. 

When thou shalt beget children and children’s children and shalt have 
remained long in the land; if ye shall corrupt yourselves and make a 
graven image of any thing, and shalt do evil in the sight of Yahweh 
thy God to provoke Him to anger; I call heaven and earth to witness 
against you this day, that ye shall soon perish from off the land where- 
unto ye are going over Jordan to possess it. Ye shall not prolong your 
days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And Yahweh will scatter 
you among the nations, and ye shall be few in number among the 
heathen whither Yahweh shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, 
the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear 
nor eat nor smell. 

For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since 
the day that God created man upon the earth, and from one end of 
heaven unto the other, whether there hath been anything like this 
great thing, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice 
of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and 
live? Or hath God essayed to take Him a nation from the midst of 
another nation by trials, by signs and by wonders and by war, and by a 
mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according 
unto all that Yahweh, your God, did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 
Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that Yahweh, He is 
God; there is none else beside Him. Out of heaven He made thee to hear 
His voice, that He might instruct thee; and upon earth He showed thee 
His great fire, and thou didst hear His voice out of the midst of the 
fire. And because He loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed 
after them, and brought thee out in His sight by His mighty power out 
of Egypt, to drive out nations before thee greater and mightier than 
thou, to bring thee in and to give thee their land for an inheritance, 
as it is this day. 

Know therefore this day, and consider in thine heart, that Yahweh 
is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is no other. 
Therefore shalt thou keep His statutes and His commandments which 
I command thee this day; that it may go well with thee and with thy 
children after thee; and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the 
earth which Yahweh thy God giveth thee for ever.’ 


1Chapter iv, 41-vy, 1, are late interpolations foreign to the context. 


318 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


THE STATEMENT OF THE LAWS 
AND THE CHOICE OF MOSES AS THEIR EXPOSITOR 


(Ch. v, 4-30) 


Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your 
ears this day, that ye may learn them, and observe to do them. Yah- 
weh, our God, made a covenant with us in Horeb. Yahweh made not 
this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even US, who are all of 
us here alive this day. Yahweh spake with you face to face in the 
mount out of the midst of the fire,—(I stood between Yahweh and you 
at that time, to declare unto you the word of Yahweh; for ye were 
afraid of the fire, and went not up into the mount) ,—saying: 

I am Yahweh, thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, 
from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. 

Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of 
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or 
that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down unto 
them nor serve them; for I, Yahweh thy God am a jealous God, visiting 
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and 
fourth generation of them that hate Me, and showing mercy unto 
the thousandth generation of them that love Me, and keep My com- 
mandments. 

Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh, thy God, in vain; for Yah- 
weh will not hold him guiltless, that taketh His name in vain. 

Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as Yahweh, thy God, com- 
manded thee. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the 
seventh day is the sabbath of Yahweh, thy God. In it thou shalt do no 
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy 
maid-servant, nor thine ox nor thine ass nor any of thy cattle, nor any 
stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid- 
servant may rest as well as thou. For thou shalt remember that thou 
wast a servant in the land of Egypt; and Yahweh thy God brought 
thee out thence by a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm; therefore 
Yahweh thy God hath commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. 

Honor thy father and thy mother, as Yahweh thy God commanded 
thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with 
thee upon the land which Yahweh thy God giveth thee. 

Thou shalt not murder. 

Neither shalt thou commit adultery. 

Neither shalt thou steal. 

Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor. 

Neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor’s house, his field, or his man- 
servant, or his maid-servant, his ox or his ass, or anything that is thy 
neighbor’s. 

These words Yahweh spake unto all your assembly in the mount out 
of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a 
great voice, and He added no more. And He wrote them upon two tablets 
of stone and gave them unto me. And it came to pass, when ye heard the 
voice out of the midst of the darkness while the mountain did burn with 
fire, that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes and 
your elders; and ye said: Behold, Yahweh our God hath shown us His 
glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst 
of the fire. We have seen this day that God doth talk with man and 
he liveth. Now, therefore, why should we die? for this great fire will 
consume us; if we hear the voice of Yahweh our God any more, then 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 319 


we shall die. For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice 
of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, 
and lived? Go thou near and hear all that Yahweh may say; and thou 
shalt speak unto us all that Yahweh our God may speak unto thee; and 
we will hear it and do it. 

And Yahweh heard the sound of your words when ye spoke unto 
me; and Yahweh said unto me: I have heard the voice of the words of 
this people which they have spoken unto thee; they have well said all 
that they have spoken. Oh, that they had such a heart as this alway, 
to fear Me and to keep My commandments, that it might be well with 
them and with their children for ever. Go, say to them: return ye to 
your tents. But as for thee, stand thee here by Me, and I will speak 
unto thee all the commandment, and the statutes and the ordinances 
which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which 
I am giving them to possess it. Ye shall observe therefore to do as 
Yahweh your God hath commanded you; ye shall not turn aside to the 
right hand or to the left. Ye shall walk in all the way which Yahweh 
your God hath commanded you, that ye may live; and that it may be 
well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye 
shall possess. 


EXPOSITION OF THE FULL MEANING OF THE LAWS OF THE FIRST TABLET 
(OD, Vi, 45 X11! 13) 

Hear, O Israel! Yahweh, our God, is One God. Thou shalt love Yah- 
weh thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon 
thy heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. And 
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou 
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be 
for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the 
door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates. 

And it shall be, when Yahweh thy God shall bring thee into the land 
which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to 
give thee,—great and goodly cities which thou didst not build, and 
houses full of good things which thou didst not fill, and cisterns hewn 
out which thou didst not hew, vineyards and olive-trees which thou 
didst not plant and thou shalt eat of the fruit and be satisfied; then be- 
ware lest thou forget Yahweh, who brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear Yahweh thy God; 
Him shalt thou serve, and by His name shalt thou swear. Ye shall not 
go after other gods, gods of the peoples that are round about you; for a 
jealous God, even Yahweh thy God, is in the midst of thee; lest 
the anger of Yahweh my God be kindled against thee, and He destroy 
thee from the face of the earth. 

Ye shall not tempt Yahweh thy God as ye tempted Him in Massah. 
Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and 
His testimonies and His statutes which He hath commanded thee. And 
thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of Yahweh; 
that it may be well\with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess 
the good land which Yahweh sware unto thy fathers, to thrust out all 
thine enemies from before thee, as Yahweh thy God hath spoken. 

When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying: What mean the 


320 | THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which Yahweh hath 
commanded you? then thou shalt say unto thy son: We were Pharaoh’s 
bondmen in the land of Egypt; and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with 
a mighty hand. And Yahweh showned signs and wonders, great and 
sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his house before our 
eyes. And He brought us out from thence that He might bring us 
into and give us the land which He sware unto our fathers. And Yahweh 
commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God for 
our good always, that He might preserve us alive as it is this day. And 
it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these command- 
ments before Yahweh our God, as He hath commanded us. 

When Yahweh thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou 
goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee,—the 
Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and 
the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater 
and mightier than thou; and when Yahweh thy God shall deliver them 
up before thee, and thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly 
destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy 
unto them; neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daugh- 
ter shalt thou not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take 
unto thy son; for they will turn away thy children from following Me, 
that they may serve other gods; so will the anger of Yahweh be kindled 
against you, and He will destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal 
with them: ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their 
pillars and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images 
with fire. For thou art a holy people unto Yahweh thy God; Yahweh 
thy God hath chosen thee to be His own treasure, above all peoples on 
the face of the earth. Yahweh did not set His love upon you, nor choose 
you, because ye were more in number than any people,—for ye were 
the fewest of all peoples; but because Yahweh loved you, and because He 
would keep the oath which He sware unto your fathers, hath Yahweh 
brought you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, 
king of Egypt. 

Know therefore that Yahweh, thy God, He is God; the faithful God, 
who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep 
His commandments to a thousand generations; and repayeth them that 
hate Him to their face, to destroy them; He will not be slack to him 
that hateth Him; He will repay him to his face. Thou shalt therefore 
keep the commandment and the statutes and the ordinances which I 
command thee this day to do them. 

Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these ordinances, 
and keep and do them, Yahweh thy God will keep with thee the cove- 
nant and the mercy which He sware unto thy fathers, and He will love 
thee, and bless thee and multiply thee; He will also bless the fruit of 
thy body, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn and thy wine and thine oil, 
the increase of thy kine and the young of thy flock, in the land which 
He sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all 
peoples; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among 
your cattle. And Yahweh will take away from thee all sickness; and 
He will put upon thee none of the evil diseases of Egypt which thou 
knowest; but will lay them upon all fhem that hate thee. And thou shalt 
consume all the peoples that Yahweh thy God shall deliver unto thee; 
thine eye shall not pity them; neither shalt thou serve their gods, for 
that will be a snare unto thee. 

If thou shalt say in thine heart: These nations are more than I; 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 324 


how can I dispossess them? thou shalt not be afraid of them; thou shalt 
well remember what Yahweh thy God did unto Pharaoh and unto all 
Egypt; the great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs and 
the wonders, and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, whereby 
Yahweh thy God brought thee out; so shall Yahweh thy God do unto all 
the peoples of whom thou art afraid. Moreover Yahweh thy God will 
send the hornet among them, until they that are left and they that hide 
themselves shall perish from before thee. Thou shalt not be afraid of 
them, for Yahweh thy God is in the midst of thee, a God mighty and 
terrible. And Yahweh thy God will cast out those nations before thee 
by little and little; thou mayest not consume them quickly, lest the 
beasts of the field increase upon thee. But Yahweh thy God shall deliver 
them up before thee, and shall discomfit them with a great discomfiture, 
until they be destroyed. And He shall deliver their kings into thy hand, 
and thou shalt make their name to perish from under heaven; there 
shall no man be able to stand before thee until thou have destroyed them. 
The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire; thou shalt not 
covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee lest thou 
be snared therein; for it is an abomination to Yahweh thy God. And 
thou shalt not bring an abomination into thy house; lest thou be a 
cursed thing like it; thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly 
abhor it; for it is a cursed thing. 

All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye 
observe to do, that ye may live and multiply and go in and possess the 
land which Yahweh sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember 
all the way which Yahweh thy God hath led thee these forty years in the 
wilderness, that He might afflict thee to prove thee, to know what was 
in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no. 
And He afflicted thee and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with 
manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He 
might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Yahweh doth man live. 
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, 
these forty years. And thou shalt consider in thine heart, that, as a 
man chasteneth his son, so Yahweh thy God chasteneth thee. And thou 
shalt keep the commandments of Yahweh thy God, to walk in His 
ways and to fear Him. For Yahweh thy God bringeth thee into a good 
land, a land of brooks, of fountains and pools of water, springing forth 
in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, and vines and pome- 
granates and fig-trees, a land of olive-trees and honey; a land where 
thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; thou shalt not lack anything 
in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest 
dig brass. And thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and bless Yahweh thy 
God for the good land which He hath given thee. Beware lest thou 
forget Yahweh thy God in not keeping His commandments and His ordi- 
nances and His statutes, which I command thee this day; lest when thou 
hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein; 
and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy 
gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thy heart 
be lifted up, and thou forget Yahweh thy God who brought thee out 
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; who led thee through 
the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were serpents, fiery serpents 
and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water; who brought 
thee forth water out of the rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness 
with manna, which thy fathers knew not; that He might afflict thee, and 


322 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


that He might prove thee to do thee good in the end; and thou say in 
thine heart: My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this 
wealth. But thou shalt remember Yahweh thy God; for it is He that 
giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant 
which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is thy day. 

And it shall be, if thou shalt forget Yahweh thy God, and walk after 
other gods and serve them and worship them, I forewarn you this day, 
that ye shall surely perish, because ye would not hearken unto the voice 
of Yahweh your God. 


Hear, O Israel! Thou art to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in 
and dispossess nations greater and mightier than thyself, whose cities 
are great and fortified up to heaven; a people great and tall, the sons 
of the Anakim of whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard 
say: “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?” Know therefore this 
day that Yahweh thy God is He that goeth before thee as a devouring 
fire. He will destroy them, and He will bring them down before thee; 
so shalt thou drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as 
Yahweh hath spoken unto thee. Speak not thou in thine heart, after 
that Yahweh thy God hath thrust them out before thee, saying: Be- 
cause of my righteousness hath Yahweh brought me in to possess this 
land; whereas, for the wickédness of those nations doth Yahweh drive 
them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, nor for the up- 
rightness of thy heart, dost thou go in to possess the land; but for the 
wickedness of these nations doth Yahweh thy God drive them out from 
before thee, and that He may establish the word which He sware unto 
thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Know therefore, that 
it is not for thy righteousness that Yahweh thy God giveth thee this 
good land to possess it; for thou art a stiff-necked people. 

Remember, forget thou not, how thou didst provoke Yahweh thy 
God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day thou didst go forth from 
the land of Egpyt until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious 
against Yahweh. Also in Horeb ye made Yahweh wroth, and Yahweh 
was angry with you to have destroyed you. When I was gone up into 
the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant 
which Yahweh made with you, then I abcde in the mount forty days 
and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water. And Yahweh 
delivered unto me the two tables of stone written with the finger of 
God; and on them was written according to all the words which Yahweh 
spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire, in the day 
of the assembly. Ahd it came to pass, at the end of forty days and 
forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tables of stone, even the 
tables of the covenant. And Yahweh said unto me: Arise, get thee down 
quickly from hence, for thy people that thou hast brought forth out of 
Egypt have acted wickedly; they have turned aside out of the way that 
I commanded them; they have made them a molten image. Further- 
more Yahweh spake unto me, saying: I have seen this people, and 
behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Let Me alone that I may destroy 
them, and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make 
of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. 

So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned 
with fire; and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. And 
I looked, and behold, ye had sinned against Yahweh your God; ye had 
made you a molten calf; ye had turned aside quickly out of the way — 
which Yahweh had commanded you. And I took hold of the two tables 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 323 


and cast them out of my two hands, and I brake them before your eyes. 
And I fell down as at the first before Yahweh; I did neither eat bread 
nor drink water, because of all your sin which ye sinned, in doing that 
which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke Him. For I was in 
dread of the anger and hot displeasure wherewith Yahweh was wroth 
against you to destroy you. But Yahweh hearkened unto me that time 
also. Moreover, Yahweh was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed 
him; and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. And I took your sin, 
the calf that ye had made, and burnt it with fire and beat it in pieces, 
grinding it very small until if was as fine as dust; and I cast the dust 
thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. And at Taberah, 
and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah ye made Yahweh wroth. And 
when Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying: Go up, and pos- 
sess the land which I have given you! then ye rebelled against the com- 
mandment of Yahweh your God, and ye believed Him not nor hearkened 
to His voice. Ye have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day 
that I knew you. So I fell down before Yahweh forty days and forty 
nights; because Yahweh had said He would destroy you. And I prayed 
unto Yahweh, and said: O God Yahweh! destroy not Thy people and 
Thy inheritance that Thou hast redeemed through Thy greatness, that 
Thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember 
Thy servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; look not upon the stubbornness 
of this people, nor upon their wickedness nor their sin; lest the land 
whence Thou broughtest us say: Because Yahweh was not able to 
bring them into the land which He promised them, and because He hated 
them, He hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. Yet 
they are Thy people and Thine inheritance, that Thou didst bring out 
by Thy great power and by Thine out-stretched arm. 

At that time Yahweh said unto me: Hew thee two tables of stone 
like unto the first, and come up unto Me into the mount, and make 
thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were 
on the first tables which thou didst break; and thou shalt put them into 
the ark. So I made an ark of acacia-wood, and hewed two tables of stone 
like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables 
in my hand. And He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, 
the ten words which Yahweh spake unto you in the mount out of the 
midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and Yahweh gave them 
unto me. And I turned and came down from the mount, and put the 
tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as Yahweh 
commanded. I had stayed in the mount as at the first time forty days 
and forty nights; and Yahweh hearkened unto me that time also; Yahweh 
would not destroy thee. And Yahweh said unto me: Arise, go before 
the people, causing them to set forward, that they may go in and 
possess the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them. 

And now, Israel, what doth Yahweh thy God require of thee but 
to fear Yahweh thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, 
and to serve Yahweh thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; 
to keep the commandments of Yahweh and His statutes which I com- 
mand thee this day for thy good? Behold, unto Yahweh thy God be- 
longeth the heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that 
therein is. Only Yahweh had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and 
He chose their seed after them, even you, above all peoples, as it is this 
day. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no more 
stiff-necked. For Yahweh, your God, He is God of gods, and Lord of 
lords, the great God, the Mighty and the Awful, who regardeth not 


324 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


persons nor taketh reward. He doth execute justice for the fatherless 
and the widow, and loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment. 
Love ye, therefore, the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of 
Egypt. Thou shalt fear Yahweh thy God; Him thou shalt serve, and 
to Him shalt thou cleave, and by His name thou shalt swear. He is 
thy glory and He is thy God that hath done for thee great and tre- 
mendous things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down 
into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now Yahweh thy God 
hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude. 

Therefore, thou shalt love Yahweh thy God and keep His charge, 
and His statutes and His ordinances and His commandments alway. 
And know ye this day—and I speak not to your children that have not 
known and have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, His 
greatness, His mighty hand and His stretched out arm, and His signs 
and His wonders which He did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh, the 
king of Egypt, and unto all his land; and what He did unto the army of 
Egypt, unto their horses and to their chariots; how He made the water 
of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how 
Yahweh hath destroyed them unto this day. And what He did unto you 
in the wilderness until ye came unto this place; and what He did unto 
Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the 
earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households 
and their tents, and all the substance in their possession before all Israel; 
but your eyes have seen all the acts of Yahweh which He did. Therefore 
shall ye keep all the commandment which I command thee this day, that 
ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land whither ye go over to 
possess it; and that ye may prolong your days upon the land which 
Yahweh sware to give unto your fathers and to their seed, a land flowing 
with milk and honey. 

For the land whither thou goest in to possess it is not as the land 
of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou didst sow thy seed, and 
didst water it with thy foot like a garden of herbs; but the land whither 
ye go over to possess it is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh 
water as the rain of heaven cometh down; a land which Yahweh thy 
God careth for. The eyes of Yahweh thy God are always upon it, from 
the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. 

And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my 
commandments which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your 
God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that 
He will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain 
and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine 
and thine oil. And He will give grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that 
thou mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves lest your heart be 
deceived, and ye turn aside and serve other gods, and worship them; 
and the wrath of Yahweh be kindled against you, and He shut up the 
heaven so that there shall be no rain, and the ground shall not yield 
her fruit, and ye perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh 
giveth you. ‘Therefore shall ye lay up my words in your heart and 
in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and 
they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them 
your children, talking of them when thou sittest in thine house and 
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and when 
thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy 
house, and upon thy gates; that your days may be multiplied, and fhe 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 325 


days of your children, upon the land which Yahweh sware unto your 
fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. 

For ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I com- 
mand you to do them; to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all His 
ways and to cleave unto Him. Then will Yahweh drive out all these 
nations from before you, and ye shall dispossess nations greater 
and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the sole of 
your foot shall tread shall be yours; from the wilderness and Lebanon, 
from the River, the river Euphrates, even unto the hinde.’ sea shall 
your land be. There shall no man be able to stand before you. 
Yahweh your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon 
all the land that ye shall tread upon, as He hath spoken unto you. 

Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the bless- 
ing, if ye shall hearken unto the commandments of Yahweh your God 
which I command you this day; and the curse, if ye shall not hearken 
unto the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of 
the way which I command you this day to go after other gods which ye 
have not known. And it shall come to pass, when Yahweh thy God 
shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou 
shalt set the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount 
Ebal. Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the 
sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites that dwell in the Arabah, 
over against Gilgal, beside the terebinth of Moreh? For ye are to 
pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God 
giveth you; and ye shall possess it and dwell therein. And ye shall] 
observe to do all the statutes and ordinances which I set before you 
this day. 

These are the statutes and the ordinances which ye shall observe to 
do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, hath given you 
to possess it all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall surely 
destroy all the places wherein the nations ye are to dispossess served 
their gods, upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under 
every leafy tree. And ye shall break down their altars, and break their 
pillars and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the 
graven images of their gods, and ye shall destroy their names out of 
that place. Ye shall not do so unto Yahweh your God. But unto the 
place that Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put 
His name there, even His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shalt thou 
come. And thither shall ye bring your burnt-offerings and your sacri- 
fices, and your tithes and the offering of your hand, and your vows and 
your free-will offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your 
.flocks; and there shall ye eat before Yahweh your God, and ye shall 
rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and all your households 
wherein Yahweh thy God hath blessed thee. Ye shall not do after all 
that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own 
eyes; for ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which 
Yahweh thy God giveth thee. But when ye go over the Jordan, and 
dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causeth you to inherit, and 
when He giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye 
dwell in safety; then there shall be a place which Yahweh your God 
shall choose to cause His name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all 
that I command you,—your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, your 
tithes and the offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye 
vow unto Yahweh. And ye shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, ye 


326 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and your sons and your daughters, and your man-servants and your 
maid-servants, and the stranger that is within your gates.7 Take heed 
to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that 
thou seest; but in the place which Yahweh shall choose in one of your 
tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there shalt thou 
do all that I command thee. Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and 
eat flesh within all thy gates after all the desire of thy soul, according 
to the blessing of Yahweh thy God which He hath given thee; the 
unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the gazelle and as of the 
hart. Only ye shall not eat the blood; thou shalt pour it cut upon 
the earth as water. 

Thou must not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of 
thy wine or of thine oil, or of the firstlings of thy herd or of thy flock; 
nor shalt thou pay there any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy 
free-will offerings, nor the heave-offering of thy hand; but thou must 
eat them before Yahweh thy God in the place that He shall choose, 
thou and thy son and thy daughter, thy man-servant and thy maid- 
servant and the stranger that is within thy gates; and thou shalt rejoice 
before Yahweh thy God, in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. 

When Yahweh thy God shall enlarge thy border, as He hath promised 
thee, and thou shalt say: I will eat flesh, because thy soul desireth 
to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh after all the desire of thy soul, if 
the place which Yahweh thy God shall choose to put His name there 
be too far from thee; then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock 
which Yahweh hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt 
eat within thy gates after all the desire of thy soul. Howbeit as the 
gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so shalt thou eat thereof; the unclean 
and the clean may eat thereof alike. Only be steadfast in not eating the 
blood; for the blood is the life; and thou shalt not eat the life with the 
flesh. Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it out upon the earth 
as water. Thou shalt not eat it, that it may be well with thee and with 
thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the 
eyes of Yahweh. Only thy holy things which thou hast and thy vows, 
thou shalt take and go unto the place which Yahweh shall choose; and 
thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the 
altar of Yahweh thy God; and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be 
poured out upon the altar of Yahweh thy God, and thou shalt eat the 
flesh. Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that 
it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee, when thou 
doest that which is right and good in the eyes of Yahweh thy God. 

When Yahweh thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee 
whither thou goest to dispossess them, and thou succeedest them and 
dwellest in their land; take heed unto thyself, that thou be not ensnared 
to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before thee; and 
that thou inquire not after their gods, saying: How did these nations 
serve their gods? so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto thy 
God Yahweh; for every abomination to Yahweh which He hateth have 
they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do 
they burn in the fire to their gods. 

All this word that I command you, that shall ye observe to do; thou 
shalt not add therefo nor diminish from it. 

If there rise in the midst of thee a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, 
and he give thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come 


1V. 12c is a Jate addition by a too careful scribe to accord with the conditions of his 
own day; v. 19 is also omitted for the same reason, 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 327 


to pass whereof he spake unto thee, saying: Let us go after other gods, 
which thou hast not known and let us serve them; thou shalt not 
hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. 
For Yahweh your God is putting you to proof, to know whether ye 
indeed love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your 
soul. After Yahweh your God shall ye walk, and Him shall ye fear, 
and His commandments shall ye keep; and obey His voice, and ye shall 
serve Him and cleave unto Him. And that prophet or that dreamer of 
dreams, shall be put to death; for he hath spoken to turn you away from 
Yahweh your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt and 
redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the 
way which Yahweh thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou 
put evil away from the midst of thee. 

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son or thy daughter, 
or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul entice 
thee secretly, saying: Let us go and serve other gods,—which thou hast 
not known, thou, nor thy fathers; of the gods of the peoples that are 
round about you, nigh unto thee or far off from thee, from the one end 
of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; thou shalt not consent 
unto him nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him, 
neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; but thou 
shalt surely kill him. Thy hand shall be first upon him to put him 
to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt 
stone him with stones that he die; because he hath sought to draw thee 
away from Yahweh thy God, who brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear and fear, 
and shall no more do any such wickedness as this is among you. 

If thou shalt hear it said of any one of thy cities which Yahweh 
thy God giveth thee to dwell therein: Certain base fellows have gone 
out from among you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, 
saying: Let us go and serve other gods which ye have not known; 
then thou shalt inquire and make search and ask diligently; and behold, 
if it be truth and it be certain that such abomination is wrought among 
you, thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge 
of the sword, destroying it utterly and all that is therein, even the cattle 
thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the 
spoil of it into the midst of the great square, and shalt burn with fire 
the city and all the spoil thereof, every whit, before Yahweh thy God. 
And it shall be a heap for ever; it shall not be rebuilt. And there shall 
cleave naught of the cursed thing to thy hand; that Yahweh may turn 
from the fierceness of His anger, and show thee mercy, and have com- 
passion upon thee and mutiply thee, as He hath sworn to thy fathers to 
do, when thou shalt hearken to the voice of Yahweh thy God to keep 
all His commandments which I command thee this day, to do right 
in the eyes of Yahweh thy God. 


EXPOSITION OF THE LAWS OF THE SECOND TABLET 
(Ch. xiv, 1—xxvi, 19) 


Ye are the children of Yahweh your God. Ye shall not cut your- 
selves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou 
art a holy people unto Yahweh thy God, and Yahweh hath chosen thee 
to be a peculiar people unto Himself above all the nations that are 
upon the face of the earth. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 
These are the beasts that ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep and the goat, 


328 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


the hart and the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild-goat, the pygarg, the ante- 
lope and the mountain-sheep; and every beast that parteth the hoof 
and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the 
beasts, that ye may eat. Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of; them 
that only chew the cud, or them that only have the hoof cloven: the 
camel and the hare and the coney, because they chew the cud but part 
not the hoof; they are unclean unto you; and the swine, because he 
parteth the hoof but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you; of 
their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch. 

These ye may eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins 
and scales, ye may eat; and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall 
not eat; it is unclean for you. 

Of all clean birds ye may eat. But these are they of which ye shall 
not eat: the great vulture and the bearded vulture and the ospray; 
and the glede and the falcon and the kite after its kinds; and every raven 
after its kinds; and the ostrich and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, 
and the hawk after its kinds; the little owl and the great ow! and the 
horned owl; the pelican and the carrion-vulture and the cormorant; 
and the stork, and the heron after its kinds, the hoopoe and the bat. 
And all winged swarming things are unclean unto you; they shall not 
be eaten. Of all clean winged things ye may eat. 

Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself; thou mayest give 
it unto the stranger that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or 
thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner; but thou art a holy people unto 
Yahweh thy God. Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother’s milk. 

Thou shalt surely tithe all the increase of thy seed, that which is 
brought forth in the field from year to year. And thou shalt eat 
before Yahweh thy God, in the place which He shall choose to cause 
His name to dwell there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine and of thine 
oil, and the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flock; that thou mayest 
learn to fear Yahweh thy God always. But, if the way be too long for 
thee, so that thou art not able to carry it because the place is too far 
from thee which Yahweh thy God shall choose to set His name there, 
when Yahweh thy God shall bless thee; then thou shalt turn it into 
money and bind up the money in thy hand, and shalt go up unto the 
place which Yahweh thy God shall choose. And thou shalt bestow the 
money for whatsoever thy soul desireth, for oxen or for sheep, or for 
strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul asketh of thee; and thou 
shalt eat these before Yahweh thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and 
thy household.’ 

At the end of every three years, even in the same year, thou shalt 
bring forth all the tithe of thine increase, and shalt lay it up within 
thy gates. And the *stranger and the fatherless and the widow that 
are within thy gates shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that 
Yahweh thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand which 
Thou doest. 

At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this 
is the manner of the release; every creditor shall release that he hath 
lent unto his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his 
brother, because Yahweh’s release hath been proclaimed. Of a foreigner 
thou mayest exact it; but whatsoever is thine with thy brother, thy 
hand shall release. Howbeit there shall be no needy among you,—for 
Yahweh will surely bless thee in the land which Yahweh thy God giveth 


1V. 27 is interpolated; it belongs to the later legislation, and is here omitted. 
2 The enjoining of charity for the Levite is contrary to the Mosaic legislation; y. 29a 
is therefore omitted. 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 329 


thee for an inheritance to possess it,—if only thou diligently hearken 
to the voice of Yahweh thy God, to observe to do all this commandment 
that I command thee this day. For Yahweh thy God will bless thee as 
He promised thee; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou 
shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they 
shall not rule over thee. 

If there be among you a needy man, one of thy brethren, within any 
of thy gates in the land which Yahweh thy God giveth thee, thou 
shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thine hand from thy needy brother; 
but thou shalt surely open thine hand unto him, and shalt surely lend 
him sufficient for his need in that which he lacketh. Beware that there 
be not a base thought in thy heart, saying: The seventh year, the year 
of release is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy needy brother, 
and thou give him nought, and he cry unto Yahweh against thee, and 
it be sin in thee. Thou shalt surely give to him, and thy heart shall not 
be grieved when thou givest unto him; because that for this thing 
Yahweh will bless thee in all thy work, and in all that thou puttest 
thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land; there- 
fore I command thee, saying: ‘Thou shalt surely open thy hand unto 
thy poor and needy brother in thy land. 

If thy brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, 
he shall serve thee six years; and in the seventh year thou shalt let him 
go free from thee. And when thou lettest him go free from thee, thou 
shalt not let him go empty; thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy 
flock, and out of thy threshing-floor, and out of thy wine-press; of 
that wherewith Yahweh thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt give 
unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in 
the land of Egypt, and that Yahweh thy God redeemed thee; therefore 
I command thee this thing to-day. And it shall be, if he say unto thee: 
I will not go out from thee, because he loveth thee and thy house, 
because he fareth well with thee; then thou shalt take an awl and 
thrust it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be thy bondman 
for ever. And also unto thy bondwoman thou shalt do likewise. It 
shall not seem hard unto thee when thou lettest him go free from thee; 
for to the double of the hire of an hireling hath he served thee six - 
years; and Yahweh thy God will bless thee in all that thou doest. 

All the firstling males that are born of thy herd and of thy: flock 
thou shalt sanctify unto Yahweh thy God; thou shalt do no work 
with the firstling of thine ox, nor shear the firstling of thy flock. Thou 
shalt eat it before Yahweh thy God year by year, in the place which 
Yahweh shall choose, thou and thy household. And if there be any 
blemish therein, lameness or blindness, any ill blemish whatsoever, thou 
shalt not sacrifice it unto Yahweh thy God. Thou shalt eat it within 
thy gates; the unclean and the clean may eat it alike, as the gazelle, 
and as the hart. Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt 
pour it out upon the ground as water. 

Observe the month Abib, and keep the passover unto Yahweh thy 
God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh thy God brought thee forth out 
of Egypt by night. And thou shalt sacrifice the passover-offering unto 
Yahweh thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh 
shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. Thou shalt eat no 
leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread 
therewith, even the bread of affliction; for in haste didst thou come forth 
out of the land of Egypt; that thou mayest remember the day when thou 
camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. And there 


330 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


shall no leaven be seen with thee in all thy borders seven days; neither 
shall any of the flesh which thou dost sacrifice the first day at even 
remain with thee until the morning. Thou mayest not sacrifice the 
offering of the passover within any of thy gates, which Yahweh thy 
God hath given thee; but at the place which Yahweh thy God shall 
choose to cause His name to dwell in, there shalt thou sacrifice the 
passover-offering at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season 
that thou camest forth out of Egypt. And thou shalt roast and eat it in 
the place which Yahweh thy God shall choose; and thou shalt turn in 
the morning and go unto thy tents. Six days thou shalt eat unleavened 
bread; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh 
thy God; thou shalt do no work therein. 

Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee; from the time the sickle 
is first put to the standing corn shalt thou begin to number seven 
weeks. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto Yahweh thy God 
after the measure of the freewill-offering of thy hand, which thou shalt 
give according as Yahweh thy God blesseth thee. And thou shait rejoice 
before Yahweh thy God, thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy 
man-servant and thy maid-servant and the Levite that is within thy 
gates, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are in 
the midst of thee, in the place which Yahweh thy God shall choose to 
cause His name to dwell there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast 
a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. 

Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou 
hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy wine-press. 
And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou and thy son and thy daughter, 
and thy man-servant and thy maid-servant, and the Levite and the 
stranger, and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy gates? 
Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto Yahweh thy God in the place 
which Yahweh shall choose; for Yahweh thy God shall bless thee in all 
thine increase and in all the work of thine hands, and thou shalt be 
altogether joyful. 

Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before Yahweh thy 
God in the place which He shall choose: On the feast of unleavened 
bread, and on the feast of weeks, and on the feast of tabernacles; and 
they shall not appear empty; every man shall give as he is able, ac- 
cording to the blessing of Yahweh thy God which He hath given thee. 

Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which 
Yahweh thy God giveth thee, tribe by tribe; and they shall judge the 
people with righteous judgment. Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou 
shalt not have regard to persons; neither shalt thou take a gift, for a 
gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the 
righteous. Justice, justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live 
and inherit the land, which Yahweh thy God giveth thee. 

Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside 
the altar of Yahweh thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Neither 
shalt thou set thee up a pillar which Yahweh thy God hateth. 

Thou shalt not sacrifice unto Yahweh thy God an ox or a sheep 
wherein is a blemish or any evil thing; for that is an abomination unto 
Yahweh thy God. 

If there be found in the midst of thee, within any of the gates which 
Yahweh thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that doeth that which is 
evil in the sight of Yahweh thy God in transgressing His covenant, and 
who hath gone and served other gods and worshipped them, or the sun 
or the moon or any of the host of heaven which I have commanded not, 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 331 


and it be told thee, and thou hear it; then shalt thou inquire diligently, 
and behold, if it be true, and the thing certain that such abomination 
is wrought in Israel, then thou shalt bring forth that man or that woman 
who hath done this evil thing unto thy gates, even the man or the 
woman; and thou shalt stone them with stones, that they die. At the 
mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses, shall he that is to die be 
put to death; at the mouth of one witness shall he not be put to death. 
The hand of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, 
and afterward the hand of all the people. So shalt thou put away the 
evil from the midst of thee. 

If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between 
- blood and blood and between plea and plea, between stroke and stroke, 
even matters of controversy within thy gates; then shalt thou arise and 
get thee up unto the place which Yahweh thy God shall choose. And 
thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that 
shall be in those days, and thou shalt inquire; and they shall declare 
unto thee the sentence of judgment. And thou shalt do according to 
the tenor of the sentence which they shall declare unto thee from that 
place which Yahweh thy God shall choose; and thou shalt observe to 
do according to all that they shall teach thee. According to the law 
which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which 
they shall tell thee, thou shalt do; thou shalt not turn aside from 
the sentence which they shall declare unto thee, to the right hand or 
to the left. And the man that doeth presumptuously in not hearkening 
to the priest that standeth to minister there before Yahweh thy God, 
or unto the judge, even that man shall die; and thou shalt exterminate 
the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear, and fear, and act 
no more presumptuously. 

When thou art come unto the land which Yahweh thy God giveth 
thee, and shalt possess it and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say: I wilt 
set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me; thou 
shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom Yahweh thy God shall 
choose; one from among thy brethren shalt thou set as king over thee; 
thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee, who is not thy brother. 
Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to 
return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses; forasmuch 
as Yahweh hath said unto you: Henceforth ye shall return no more 
that way. Neither shall he multiply wives unto himself, that his heart 
turn not away; neither shall he multiply to himself silver and gold. 
And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that 
he shall write him acopy of this law in a book, out of that which is before 
the priests the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read 
therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his 
God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; 
that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn 
not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left; 
to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his chil- 
dren, in the midst of Israel. 

The priests, the Levites, eevn all the tribe of Levi, shall have no 
portion nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of Yah- 
weh made by fire which are His inheritance. And they shall have 
no inheritance among their brethren; Yahweh is their inheritance, as 
He hath spoken unto them. 

And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from them that 
offer sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; that they shall give unto the 


332 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the maw. ‘The first-fruits 
of thy corn and of thy wine and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece 
of thy sheep, shalt thou give him. For Yahweh thy God hath chosen 
him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of Yahweh, 
him and his sons for ever. 

And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where 
he sojourneth, and come with all the desire of his soul unto the place 
which Yahweh thy God shall choose; then he shall minister in the 
name of Yahweh his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand 
there before Yahweh. They shall have like portions to eat, besides 
that which is his due according to the fathers’ houses. 


When thou art come into the land which Yahweh thy God giveth 
thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his 
daughter to pass through fire, or that useth divination, a soothsayer, 
an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer or a consulter with familiar 
spirits, or a wizard or a necromancer. For all that do these things 
are an abomination to Yahweh; and because of these abominations 
doth Yahweh thy God drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be 
perfect with Yahweh thy God. For these nations which thou shalt dis- 
possess hearkened unto soothsayers and unto diviners; but as for thee, 
Yahweh thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. 


A Prophet will Yahweh thy God raise up unto thee from the midst 
of thee, one of thy brethren like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken, 
according to all that thou didst desire of Yahweh thy God in Horeb, in 
the day of the assembly, saying: Let me not hear again the voice of 
Yahweh my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die 
not. And Yahweh said unto me, They have well spoken. [ will raise 
up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee; and I will put 
My words. in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I com- 
mand him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken 
to My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him. 
But the prophet who shall presume to speak a word in My name which 
I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of 
other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart: 
How shall we know the word which Yahweh hath not spoken? When a 
prophet speaketh in the name of Yahweh, if the thing follow not nor 
come to pass, that is the thing which Yahweh hath not spoken; the 
prophet hath spoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him. 


When Yahweh thy God hath cut off the nations whose land Yahweh 
thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them and dwellest in their 
cities, and in their houses; thou shalt separate three cities for thee in 
the midst of the land which Yahweh thy God giveth thee to possess it. 
Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the borders of thy land, 
which Yahweh thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that 
every slayer may flee thither. 

And this is the case of the man-slayer which shall flee thither, that 
he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbor ignorantly, whom he hated 
not in time past; as when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbor 
to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down 
the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his 
neighbor that he die; he shall flee to one of those cities and live; lest the 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 333 


avenger of blood pursue the slayer while his heart is hot, and over- 
take him because the way is long, and slay him; whereas he was not 
worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past. Where- 
fore I command thee, saying: Thou shalt separate three cities for 
thee, 

And if Yahweh thy God enlarge thy border, as He hath sworn to 
thy fathers, and give thee all the land which He promised to give unto 
thy fathers; if thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, 
which I command thee this day; to love Yahweh thy God, and to walk 
ever in His ways; then thou shalt add three cities more for thee, be- 
sides these three; that innocent blood shall not be shed in thy land, 
which Yahweh thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood 
be upon thee. 

But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him and rise 
up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth unto one 
of these cities; then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him 
thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he 
may die. Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the 
blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may be well with thee. 

Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor’s landmark, which they of old 
time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land 
that Yahweh thy God giveth thee to possess it. 

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for 
any sin, in any sin that he sinneth; at the mouth of two witnesses 
or the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. If a 
false witness rise up against any man to testify against him wrongly; 
then both the men between whom is the controversy shall stand before 
Yahweh, before the priests and the judges which shall be in those 
days; and the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and behold, if the 
witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; 
then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to do unto his brother; 
so shall ye put away the evil from among you. And those that remain 
shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such 
evil among you. And thine eye shall not pity; life for life, eye for eye, 
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. 


When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses 
and chariots and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them; for 
Yahweh thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land 
of Egypt. And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that 
the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, and shall say 
unto them: Hear, O Israel! ye approach this day unto battle against 
your enemies; let not your hearts faint; fear not, and do not tremble, 
neither be ye terrified because of them; for Yahweh your God goeth 
with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. And the 
officers shall speak unto the people, saying: What man here hath built 
a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his 
house, lest he die in battle, and another man dedicate it. And what 
man hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him 
go and return unto his house, lest he die in battle, and another man 
use the fruit thereof. And what man hath betrothed a wife, and hath 
not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, 
and another man take her. And the officers shall speak further unto 
the people, and say: What man is fearful and faint-hearted? let him 
go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as 


334 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


his heart. And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of 
speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies 
to lead the people. 

When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim 
peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace and 
open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people found therein shall 
be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. But if it will make 
no peace with thee and will make war against thee, then thou shalt 
besiege it; and when Yahweh thy God hath delivered it into thy 
hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword; 
but the women and the little ones and the cattle, and all that is in the 
city, all the spoil thereof; shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt 
consume the spoil of thine enemies, which Yahweh thy God hath given 
thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off 
from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities 
of these people which Yahweh thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, 
thou shalt save alive nothing that doth breathe; thou shalt utterly de- 
stroy them: the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Periz- 
zites, the Hivites and the Jebusites,* as Yahweh thy God hath commanded 
thee; that they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which 
they have offered unto their gods; and so ye sin against Yahweh your 
God. 

When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against 
it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by wielding an axe 
against them; for thou mayest eat of them, but thou shalt not cut them 
down; for is the tree of the field man, that thou shouldest besiege it? 
Only the trees of which thou knowest that they are not trees for food, 
them thou mayest destroy and cut down, that thou mayest build bul- 
warks against the city that maketh war against thee, until it be subdued. 


If one be found slain in the land which Yahweh thy God giveth 
thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath 
slain him; then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they 
shall measure unto the cities round about him that is slain; and it 
shall be that the city nearest unto the slain man, even the elders of 
that city shall take an heifer which hath not been wrought with, nor 
hath drawn in the yoke; and the elders of that city shall bring down 
the heifer to a rough valley which is neither ploughed nor sown, and 
strike off the heifer’s neck there in the valley; and the priests the sons 
of Levi shall come near—for them hath Yahweh thy God chosen to 
minister unto Him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh, and according 
to their decision shall be every controversy and every stroke. And all 
the elders of the city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands 
over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley. And they shall speak 
and say: Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes 
seen it. Be merciful, O Yahweh, unto Thy people Israel whom Thou 
hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to the charge of Thy people 
Israel. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away 
innocent blood from among you, when thou doest right in the sight 
of Yahweh. 

When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and Yahweh 
thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them 
captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman and hast a 


1 All these peoples had conquered Canaanite territory, and intermarried with the 
original settlers and had thereby become contaminated. 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 335 


desire for her, that thou wouldest have her to wife; then thou shalt 
bring her home to thy house, and she shall shave her head and pare 
her nails; and she shall put off from her the raiment of her captivity 
and shall remain in thine house and bewail her father and her mother 
a full month; and after/that thou shalt go in unto her and be her 
husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no 
delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou 
shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise 
of her, because thou hast humbled her. 

If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they 
have both borne him children, and the first-born son be hers that was 
hated; then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which 
he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved first-born before 
the son of the hated who is indeed the first-born; but he shall acknowl- 
edge the son of the hated first-born by giving him a double portion 
of all that he hath; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right 
of the first-born is his. 

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son which will not obey 
the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they 
have chastened him, will not hearken unto them; then shall his father 
and his mother lay hold on him and bring him unto the elders of his 
city and unto the gate of his place; and they shall say unto the elders 
of the city: This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey 
our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city 
shall stone him with stones, that he die. So shalt thou put away evil 
from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. 

And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put 
to death, and thou hang him on a tree; his body shall not remain all 
night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day, for 
he that is hanged is accursed of God, that the land be not defiled, which 
Yahweh thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. 

Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide 
thyself from them; thou shalt in any case bring them again to thy 
brother. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him 
not, then thou shall bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be 
with thee until thy brother seek after it; then thou shalt restore it 
unto him again. In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so 
shalt thou do with his raiment; and with every thing of thy brother’s 
which he hath lost and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise. Thou 
mayest not hide thyself. | 

Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way 
and hide thyself from them; thou shalt surely help him to lift them 
up again. 

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither 
shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for all that do so are abomina- 
tion unto Yahweh thy God. 

If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way, in any tree or 
on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the dam sitting upon the 
young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young; 
thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that 
it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. 

When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement 
for thy roof that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man 
fall from thence. 

Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds, lest the fullness 


336 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


of the seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard alike 
deteriorate. 

Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt 
not wear a garment of mixed goods, as of woollen and cotton together. 
Thou shalt make thee twisted cords upon the four corners of thy 
vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself. 


* * * * * * * 


When thou comest into thy neighbor’s vineyard, thou mayest eat 
thy fill of grapes at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in 
thy vessel. When thou comest into thy neighbor’s standing corn, thou 
mayest pluck the ears with thy hand; but thou shalt put no sickle into 
thy neighbor’s standing corn. 

No man shall take the mill nor the upper mill-stone to pledge; for 
he taketh a man’s life to pledge. 

When thou dost lend thy neighbor any manner of loan, thou shalt 
not go into his house to fetch the pledge; thou shalt stand without, 
and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring forth the pledge with- 
out unto thee. And if he be a poor man, thou shalt not sleep retaining 
his pledge; thou shalt surely restore the pledge to him when the sun 
goeth down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless thee; and it 
shall be righteousness unto thee before Yahweh thy God. 

Thou shalt not oppress,a hired servant that is poor and needy, 
whether he be of thy brethren or of the strangers that are in the land 
within thy gates. In the same day thou shalt give him his hire, neither 
shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor and setteth his heart 
upon it; lest he cry against thee unto Yahweh, and it be sin in thee. 

When thou reapest the harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf, 
thou shalt not go back to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the 
fatherless and for the widow. When thou beatest thine olive-tree, thou 
shalt not| go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, for the 
fatherless and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy 
vineyard, thou shalt not glean it after thee; it shall be for the stranger, 
for the fatherless and for the widow. And thou shalt remember that 
thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt; therefore I command thee 
to do this thing. 

If there be a controversy between men and they come unto judg- 
ment, then the judges shall justify the righteous and condemn the 
wicked. And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, 
that the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten before his face 
according to his fault by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give 
him, but not more; lest, if he exceed and beat him above these with 
many stripes, then thy brother should be dishonored before thine eyes. 

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. 

Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a great and a small. 
Thou shalt not have in thy house diverse measures, a great and a small. 
Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure 
shalt thou have; that thy days may be long in the land which Yahweh 
thy God hath given thee. For all that do such things, and all that do 
unrighteously, are an abomination unto Yahweh thy God. 

Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when thou wast 

1Ch. xxii, 18-xxv, 12, contain chiefly expansions of the laws for the regulation of the 
domestic life of the Israelites given in the “Law of Holiness.”” A few excerpts given 
below show the Deuteronomic insistence upon justice, mercy, and benevolence in the 


smallest details in the life of the community, and the scrupulous care for the feelings of 
the recipient of kindnesses. 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 337 


come out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way and smote the hind- 
most of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast 
faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when 
Yahweh thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round 
about, in the land which Yahweh thy God giveth thee for an inheritance 
to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from 
under heaven; thou shalt not forget it. 

And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which Yahweh 
thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and dost possess it and dwell 
therein, that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth 
which thou shalt bring forth of the land that Yahweh thy God giveth 
thee, and shalt put it in a basket and shalt go unto the place which 
Yahweh thy God shall choose to place His name there. -And thou shalt 
go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and shalt say unto him: 

I profess this day unto Yahweh thy God, that I am come unto the 
land which Yahweh sware unto our fathers to give us. 

And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hands, and set it 
down before the altar of Yahweh thy God. 

And thou shalt speak and say before Yahweh thy God: A Syrian 
ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt and so- 
journed there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty and 
populous; and the Egyptians evil-entreated us, and laid upon us hard 
bondage; and when we cried unto Yahweh, the God of our fathers, He 
heard our voice and looked upon our affliction and our labor and our 
oppression; and Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty 
hand, with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness and with 
signs and with wonders; and He hath brought us unto this place, and 
hath given us this land that floweth with milk and honey. And now, 
behold, I have brought thee first-fruits of the land which Thou, O 
Yahweh, hast given me. 

And thou shalt set it before Yahweh thy God, and worship before 
Yahweh thy God; and thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which 
Yahweh thy God hath given unto thee and thine house, thou and the 
Levite, and the stranger that is with you. 

When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine in- 
crease the third year, the year of tithing; and hast given unto the 
Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, that they may eat 
within thy gates and be filled; then thou shalt say before Yahweh thy 
God: 

I have put away the hallowed things out of my house, and have also 
given them to the Levite and unto the fatherless and the widow, and 
unto the stranger, according to all the commandments which Thou 
hast commanded me; I have not transgressed Thy commandments, 
neither have I forgotten Thee; I have not eaten thereof in my mourn- 
ing, neither have I taken away thereof for unclean use, nor given 
thereof for the dead. I have hearkened unto the voice of Yahweh my 
God, and have done according to all that Thou hast commanded me. 
Look down from heaven, Thy holy habitation, and bless Thy people 
Israel and the land which Thou hast given us, as Thou swarest unto 
our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 

This day Yahweh thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes 
and ordinances; thou shalt therefore observe and do them with all 
thine heart and with all thy soul. Thou hast this day avouched Yahweh 
to be thy God, and to walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His com- 
mandments and His ordinances, and to hearken to His voice; and Yahweh 


338 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


hath this day avouched thee to be His peculiar people, as He hath 
promised thee, if thou keep all His commandments, and to make thee 
high above all nations which He hath made in praise, and in name, and 
in honor; that thou mayest be an holy people unto Yahweh thy God, 
as He hath spoken. 


SUMMATION OF THE RESULTS OF OBEDIENCE AND OF DISOBEDIENCE TO 
THESE COMMANDMENTS 


(Ch. xxviii, 1-68) 


*And it shall come to pass, if thou wilt hearken diligently unto 
the voice of Yahweh thy God, to observe and to do all His command- 
ments which I have commanded thee this day, that Yahweh thy God 
will set thee high above all nations of the earth; and all these blessings 
shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou wilt hearken unto the 
voice of Yahweh thy God. 

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the 
field. 

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, 
and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine and the young 
of thy flock. 

Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. 

Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou 
be when thou goest out. 

Yahweh shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be 
smitten before thee; they. shall come out against thee one way, and flee 
before thee seven ways. 

Yahweh shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, 
and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and He shall bless thee in 
the land which Yahweh thy God giveth thee. 

Yahweh shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself, as He 
hath sworn unto thee if thou shalt keep the commandments of Yahweh 
thy God, and walk in His ways. And all people of the earth shall see 
that thou art called by the name of Yahweh, and they shall be afraid 
of thee. 

And Yahweh shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy 
body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in 
the land which Yahweh sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Yahweh 
shall open unto thee His good treasure: the heaven to give the rain 
unto thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thine hand. 

And thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. 
And Yahweh shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt 
be above only; thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the 
commandments of Yahweh thy God, which I command thee this day, 
to observe and to do them. And thou shalt not go aside from any 
of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand or the 
left, to go after other gods to serve them. 


But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of 
Yahweh thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His 
statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall 
come upon thee and overtake thee. 

Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed shalt thou be in the field. 


1Ch. xxvii is recognized by all critics to be either an addition or out of place. In either 
case, it interrupts the sequence of the argument, and is therefore omitted. 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 339 


Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. 

Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the 
increase of thy kine and of the young of thy flock. 

Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in and cursed. when thou 
goest out. 

Yahweh shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all 
that thou settest thy hand unto, until thou be destroyed, and until thou 
perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou 
hast forsaken Me. 

Yahweh shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until He have 
consumed thee from off the land which thou goest over to possess. 

Yahweh shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and 
with an inflammation and with an extreme burning, and with the 
sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee, 
until thou perish. And the heaven that is over thy head shall be 
brass, and the earth that is under thee, iron. Yahweh shall make the 
rain of thy land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down 
upon thee, until thou be destroyed. 

Yahweh shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies; thou 
shalt go one way against them, and flee seven ways before them; and 
thou shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy 
carcass shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air, and unto the beasts 
of the earth, and no man shall fray them away. 

Yahweh will smite thee with the boil of Egypt, and with the 
emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not 
be healed. 

Yahweh shall smite thee with madness and blindness and with 
astonishment of heart; and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind 
gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways. And thou 
shalt be perpetually oppressed and robbed, and no man shall save thee. 

Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; thou 
shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant 
a vineyard, and shall not gather the grapes thereof. Thine ox shall be 
slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof; thine ass shall 
be violently taken away before thy face, and shall not be restored to 
thee; thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies and thou shalt have 
none to rescue them. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto 
another people, and thine eyes shall look and fail with longing for 
them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand. The 
fruit of thy land and of all thy labors shall a nation that thou knowest 
not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway; so 
that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes that thou shalt see. 

Yahweh shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore 
boil that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the crown 
of thy head. 

Yahweh shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over 
thee unto a nation that neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and 
there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou shalt 
become an astonishment, a proverb and a byword among all nations 
whither Yahweh shall lead thee. 

Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather 
little in, for the locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant and dress 
vineyards, but thou shalt neither drink the wine, nor gather the grapes, 
for the worms shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout 
all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thee with the oil, for thine 


340 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


olives shall drop off. All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust 
consume. 

Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; 
for they shall go into captivity. The stranger that is in the midst of 
thee shall mount above thee higher and higher, and thou shalt come 
down lower and lower. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to 
him; he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. 

And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee 
and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not 
unto the voice of Yahweh thy God, to keep His commandments and His 
statutes which He commanded thee; and they shall be upon thee for a 
sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou 
servedst not Yahweh thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart . 
by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve 
thine enemy whom Yahweh shall send against thee, in hunger and in 
thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things; and He shall put a 
yoke of iron upon thy neck until He have destroyed thee. 

Yahweh shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end 
of the earth, as the vulture sweepeth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt 
not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard 
the person of the old, nor show favor to the young; and he shall eat the 
fruit of the herds and the fruit of thy ground, until thou be destroyed; 
who shall not leave thee corn, wine, or oil, the increase of thy kine, 
nor the young of thy flocks until he have destroyed thee. And he shall 
besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fortified walls wherein 
thou didst trust come down throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege 
thee in all thy gates throughout all fhe land which Yahweh thy God 
hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the 
flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which Yahweh hath given thee, 
in the siege and in the straitness with which thine enemies shall dis- 
tress thee. The man that is tender among you and very delicate, his 
eyes shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, 
and toward the remnant of his children remaining; so that he will not 
give any of them of the flesh of his children to eat; because he hath 
nothing left him for the siege and the straitness wherewith thine 
enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate 
woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her 
foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be 
evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son and toward 
her daughter and toward the babes that she shall bear; for she shall 
eat them, for want of all things, secretly in the siege and distress 
wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates. 

If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are 
written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful 
name, YAHWEH THY GOD; then Yahweh will make thy plagues won- 
derful, and the plagues of thy seed, great plagues and of long continu- 
ance, and sore sicknesses of long continuance. Moreover He will bring 
upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and 
they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness and every plague 
which are not written in the book of this law, them will Yahweh bring 
upon thee, until thou art destroyed. 

And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of 
heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of 
Yahweh thy God. And it shall come to pass, that as Yahweh rejoiced 
over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so Yahweh will rejoice 


THE BOOK OF THE LAW 341 


over you to destroy ycu, and to bring you to naught; and ye shall be 
plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. 

And Yahweh shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end 
of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, 
which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, wood and stone. And 
among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of 
thy feet have rest; but Yahweh shall give thee a trembling heart, and 
failing eyes, and sorrow of mind; and thy life shall hang in doubt before 
thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shall have none assur- 
ance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say: Would God it were 
evening! and at even thou shalt say: Would God it were morning! 
for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight 
of thine eyes which thou shalt see. 

And Yahweh shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the 
way whereof I said unto thee: Ye shall see it no more again. And 
there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, 
and no man shall buy you. 


THE PERORATION 
CCN xxix, 0-14.29" xxx 11-20;) 


Ye stand this day, all of you, before Yahweh your God; your cap- 
tains of tribes, your elders and your officers with all the men of Israel, 
your little ones, your wives, and the stranger that is in thy camp, from 
the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water, that thou shouldest 
enter into covenant with Yahweh thy God, and into His oath which 
Yahweh thy God maketh with thee this day; that He may establish thee 
to-day for a people unto Himself, and that He may be thy God, as He 
hath said unto thee, and as He hath sworn unto thy fathers, unto Abra- 
ham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this 
covenant and this oath, with him that standeth here with us this day 
before Yahweh our God; but also with him that is not here this day; 
lest there should be any man among you, or woman, or family, or 
tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from Yahweh our God, to go 
and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a 
root that beareth gall and wormwood; and it come to pass, when he 
heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, say- 
ing: I shall have peace, though I walk in the imaginations of mine 
heart to add drunkenness to thirst,—Yahweh will not spare him; but 
the anger of Yahweh and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, 
and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, 
and Yahweh shall blot out his name from under heaven. 

The secret things belong unto Yahweh our God; but those revealed 
belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words 
of this law. 

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not 
hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou 
shouldest say: Who shall go up for us to heaven and bring it us, that 
we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou 
shouldest say: Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it us, that 
we may hear it and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in 
thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. 

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil, 
in that I command thee this day to love Yahweh thy God, to walk in 
His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His 


342 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


ordinances, that thou mayest live and multiply; and Yahweh thy God 
shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if 
thine heart turn away so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn 
away and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this 
day that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your 
days upon the land whither thou goest, over Jordan to possess it. 

I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you, that I have 
set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose 
life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love 
Yahweh thy God, that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou 
mayest cleave unto Him. For He is thy life and the length of thy 
days. That thou mayest dwell in the land which Yahweh sware unto 
thy fathers, unto Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give them. 


APPENDIX BY A LATER WRITER, OR POSSIBLY BY D. HIMSELF AS EDITOR 
OF THE ORATION 


(Cn xXxxis, Ola.) 


[And Moses wrote this law and delivered it unto the priests the sons 
of Levi which bare the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and unto all 
the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: At the end 
of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the 
feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before Yahweh 
thy God in the place which He shall choose, thou shalt read this law 
before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men 
and women and children, and the stranger that is within thy gates, that 
they may hear and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, 
and observe to do all the words of this law; and that their children, 
which have not known, may hear and learn to fear Yahweh your God, 
as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over to possess it.] 


SECOND APPENDIX, MUCH LATER 
(Ch. xxxi, 1-8.) 


[And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel, and said 
unto them: I am an hundred and twenty years old this day. I can 
no more go out and come in; also Yahweh hath said unto me: Thou 
shalt not go over this Jordan. Yahweh thy God, He will go over before 
thee; He will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt 
dispossess them. And Joshua shall go over before thee, as Yahweh 
hath said. And Yahweh shall do unto them as He did to Sihon and 
to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them whom He 
destroyed. And Yahweh shall give them up before your face, that ye 
may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have 
commanded you. Be strong and of a good courage; fear not, nor be af- 
frighted by them, for Yahweh thy God is He that goeth with thee; He 
will be with thee, He will not fail thee nor forsake thee; fear not, 
neither be dismayed. 

And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all 
Israel: Be strong and of a good courage; for thou shalt go with this 
people into the land which Yahweh hath promised unto their fathers 
to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And Yahweh, 
He it is that goeth before thee. He will be with thee. He will not 
fail thee, nor forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed.] 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 


First BooKLEeT 


A. THE CALL OF JEREMIAH (Cc. 627 B.C.) 
(Jer. i, 4-14)? 
The word of Yahweh came unto me, saying: 


Before I found thee in the belly, I knew thee; 
Before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee; 
I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 


Then said I: Ah, God Yahweh, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a 
child. But Yahweh said: Say not unto Me, I am a child; for thou shalt 
go to all to whom I shall send thee; and whatsoever I command thee, 
thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to 
deliver thee. Then Yahweh put forth His hand and touched my mouth. 
And Yahweh said unto me: 


Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth. 
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and kingdoms 
To root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, 
To build and to plant. 


Moreover, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying: What seest 
thou? And I said: I see a twig of an almond-tree. Then said Yahweh 
unto me: Thou hast well seen; for I will hasten My word to perform it. 

And the word of Yahweh came to me a second time, saying: What 
seest thou? And TI said: I see a seething pot, and the face of it is 
from the north. Then Yahweh said unto me: 


Evil breaketh forth from the north on all who dwell upon earth; 
For lo, I call upon all peoples of the kingdoms of the north. 
They shall come, and each shall set up his throne 
Before the gates of Jerusalem, 
Against all her walls round about, and all the cities of Judah. 
I will utter My judgments against them for all their offenses, 
In that they have forsaken Me and burned incense to alien gods, 
And have bowed themselves down to worship 
The works of their own hands. 
Now gird up thy loins and arise : 
And say to them all that I bid thee. 
Be not dismayed before them, 
Lest I confound thee before them, 
For lo, I make thee this day a fortress, an iron pillar 
And brazen walls against all the land, the kings of Judah 
1 Native editor’s preface (Ch. i, 1-3.) ‘The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, 
of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin; to whom the word of 
Yahweh came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth 
year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, unto the 
eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away 
captive of Jerusalem in the fifth month.”’ 


343 


344 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And the princes thereof, and against the priests thereof 
And her common people. 
And they shall fight against thee, but shall not overcome thee, 
For I am with thee to deliver thee, saith Yahweh. 


B. JEREMIAH’S FirST DISCOURSE (c. 625 B.C.) 
(Che i213 9203 7 tet) 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
I remember the piety of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, 
Thy following Me in the wilderness, the uncultivated land. 
Israel was dedicated to Yahweh, the first-fruits of His care. 
All that molest him shall be held guilty; 
Evil shall come upon them, saith Yahweh. 


Hear the word of Yahweh, O House of Jacob, 
All the families of the House of Israel! 
What iniquities have your fathers found in Me 
That they removed themselves far from Me? 
And have not said: Where is Yahweh that brought us up 
Out of the land of Egypt, 
Our Leader through the wilderness, the land of deserts and pits, 
The land of drought and of terror, a land traversed by none, 
And no man dwelt therein? 


I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and goodness, 
But when ye entered, ye defiled My land 
And made Mine heritage an abomination. 
The priests said not: Where is Yahweh? 
They that handle the law knew Me not; the rulers 
Transgressed against Me; 
The prophets prophesied by Baal, and bowed to gods that help not. 


Therefore, I will yet plead with you, with your sons’ sons will I plead. 
For, pass over the Isles of Chittim, and see! 
Send now to Kedar, and closely consider 
Whether ever a thing like this hath been. 
Hath any nation changed its gods, though no gods they were? 
But My people have changed its glory for what profiteth not! 
Be astonished at this, ye heavens! Yea, shudder and be amazed! 


For My people have committed two evils; 
Me have they forsaken, the fountain of living waters, 
And hewed them out wells, broken wells, which hold no water. 


In the old days I broke thy yoke, I pulled off thy fetters. 
And thou saidst: I will not transgress; 
Yet upon every high hill and under every leafy tree 
Thou hast bowed down, playing the harlot. 


Yet I planted thee a noble vine, altogether of noble seed; 
How art thou changed!—to a degenerate plant to Me unknown; 
For though thou wash thee with potash, and use much soap, 
Still thine iniquity is recorded before Me, saith Yahweh. 


How canst thou say: Iam not defiled, 

After Baalim have I not gone! 
See thy path in the valley; know what thou hast done. 
Thou art a swift young camel, traversing her ways, 
A wild ass of the wilderness in the flush of her craving; 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 345 


She snuffeth up the scent of her desire; 
Who shall restrain her? 
Let not those that seek her weary themselves; 
In her month they shall find her. 
Save thy foot from being unshod, thy throat from thirst. 
But thou saidest: There is no hope, for I have loved aliens 
And after them will I go. 


As a thief is ashamed when he is caught, so is the House of Israel. 
They, their kings, their nobles, their priests and prophets; 
Who say to a tree: Thou art my father! 
To a stone: Thou hast brought me forth. 
For their back they have turned to Me, and not their faces. 
Yet, in the time of trouble, they will say: 
Arise, and save me! 
Now, where are thy gods, that thou madest for thyself? 
Let them arise in the time of thy trouble 
If they can save thee; 
For, as the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah! 


Why do ye strive against Me? 
Ye have all transgressed against Me. 
In vain do I smite your children, they accept no correction. 
Your own sword hath slain your prophets, like a ravening lion. 
And ye were not afraid! 
Hear, now, the words of Yahweh! 
Have I been a desert to Israel? a land of utter darkness? 
Then why say My people: We will rule ourselves; 
We will come no more to Thee? 


Will a maiden forget her adornments, or a bride her girdle? 


Yet My people have forgotten Me, days without number. 
How hath it profited, thy way of seeking love? 

Whereby thou hast taught thyself the ways of wickedness. 
Yea, on thy hands is found the blood of the guiltless; 


Not only on law-breakers is it found, 
But upon all these people. 


Yet sayest thou: Surely His anger is turned away from me; 
I am innocent. 
Behold I condemn thee, because thou hast said: 
have not sinned. 


How greatly dost thou cheapen thyself,—to change thy way! 
Through Egypt shalt thou be shamed, as thou wast by Ashur. 
From this one, too, shalt thou go forth, 
Thy hands upon thy head. 
For Yahweh hath rejected those thou dost trust in, 
Nor shalt thou thrive by them. 


If a man put away his wife, and she have belonged to another, 
Shall he turn to her again? Is she not greatly polluted? 
Yet thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, 
And wouldst thou return unto Me? 
Lift thine eyes to the high places, and see! 
Where hast thou not embraced them? 
On the roads hast thou embraced them 
As an Arab in the wilderness. 
Thou hast polluted the land with thy harlotry and thy crimes. 
Thine is the forehead of an abandoned woman, 
Thou hast refused to be ashamed. 


346 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Dost thou not, even now, call Me, F ather ? saying: 
“The guide of my youth art Thou!” 
Behold, thus thou speakest, 
And doest wicked deeds when thou canst. 


C. A PROPHECY OF A SCYTHIAN INVASION (c 625 B.C.) 
(Gh. IN caso Leave oder vie tous 
Thus saith Yahweh to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: 


Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. 
Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh; put away uncleanness 
From among you. 
Lest My wrath go forth like a fire and burn, 
And there be no quenching it, 
Because of the wickedness of your ‘deeds. 


Declare in Judah, announce in Jerusalem, and say 
Blow the trumpet in the land! Cry aloud, help each aor 
Get together; say: Let us go to the fortified cities; 
Raise the standard towards Zion, flee in haste, stay not! 
For calamity cometh from the north and a great destruction. 


A lion hath risen from his lair, a destroyer of nations 
Hath broken camp, gone forth from his place to make 
Thy land desolate. 
To lay thy cities waste, without an inp apen 
For this, gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail, 
For the fierce anger of Yahweh is not turned from us. 


In that day, the heart of the king shall fail, 
And the heart of the princes, 
And the priests shall be appalled, the prophets struck with awe. 
Then shall they say: Alas, O God Yahweh, 
Thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: 
Ye shall have peace. 
Whereas the sword pierceth to our soul. 


At that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem: 


A dry wind from the hills in the wilderness 
; Cometh towards My people, 
Not to winnow and not to cleanse, a strong, powerful wind. 


Lo, it mounteth like clouds! Like a whirlwind its chariots, 
Swifter than eagles its horses! Woe to us! We are destroyed! 
For rumor gives warning from Dan _ of distress to Mount Ephraim: 
Make it known to the nations, make Jerusalem heed! 

Heralds from a far country proclaim danger for Judah. 

As keepers of a field do they compass her about 

Because she hath been rebellious against Me, saith Yahweh. 
Thy customs and thy deeds have brought it upon thee, 
This thy calamity; bitter it is; it pierceth unto thy heart. 

O Jerusalem, cleanse thy heart from evil, that Thou be saved! 
How long shall evil devices be harbored within thee? 


(My anguish! my anguish! Iwrithe; the walls of my heart are racked,’ 


1Having heretofore spoken as the mouthpiece of Yahweh, the young prophet is here. 
overcome by the purport of his message, and pours forth his own anguish over the coming 
woe, 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 34 


~ 


My heart groans aloud within me _ I cannot keep silence. 


For I hear the sound of a horn, I hear the alarum of war. 
Ruin on ruin is declared, all the land is laid waste. 
Suddenly are my tents despoiled, in a twinkling my curtains! 
How long shall I see the standard or hear the voice of horns?) 
My people have no discernment, they have not known Me; 
Foolish children they are, devoid of understanding, 
Keen are they to do evil; to do right is beyond them. 
(I beheld the earth, and lo! It was formless and void. 
And the heavens had no light. 
I beheld the mountains, and lo! they quaked, 


And the hills moved to and fro. 
I beheld, and lo! there was no man, the birds of the air had flown. 
I beheld, and lo! the fruitful land was waste, and its cities. 
were broken down 
Before the face of Yahweh, and the fierceness of His anger.) 


For thus Yahweh hath said: The whole land shall be desolate. 
For this shall the earth mourn and the heavens be obscured, 
Because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, I will not repent, 
Neither will I turn back from it. 
Before the noise of the horsemen and bowmen, 
The whole city shall flee. 
They shall creep into thickets and caves and climb upon cliffs; 
Every city shall be abandoned and not a man shall dwell therein. 


When thou art ruined, what wilt thou do? 
Though thou clothe thyself with crimson, 
Though thou deck thee with jewels of gold 
And paint thine eyelids with kohl, 
In vain dost thou make thyself fair, thy lovers will scorn thee. 
They will seek thy life. 


The noise of a woman in travail have I heard, 

The anguish of one bringing forth her first-born child. 

The voice of the daughter of Zion; she gasps, she spreadeth her hands. 
Woe is me! for my soul fainteth because of the murderers! 


Run through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know! 
Seek in her spacious squares if ye can find a man, 
If there be one who doeth right or earnestly seeks for truth. 
Yet they say: By the life of Yahweh! Surely they swear falsely, 
O Yahweh; do not Thine eyes look for truth? 
Thou hast smitten them but they have not grieved; 
They have made their faces harder than rock 
They refuse to accept correction, and to return unto Me. 


Then said I: Surely these are poormen and they are stupid; 
They know not the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God. 
To the nobles I will betake Me, I will speak with them; 
For they know the way of Yahweh, the law of their God. 
Verily, these also have broken the yoke and burst the bonds. 


Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, 

An evening wolf shall spoil them; a leopard shall prowl 

About their cities, and all who go forth shall he rend. 

For many are their offenses, their backslidings are many. 

How can I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken Me 
And sworn by them that are no gods. 


348 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


When I had fed them to the full, they became adulterous, 
And into the houses of harlots they trooped together. 
Like lusty stallions, each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. 
For these things shall I not punish? saith Yahweh. 

Shall I not be avenged on such a nation? 
Go up against her walls and destroy; take away her branches, 

They are not Yahweh’s. 

For they have dealt very treacherously with Me, saith Yahweh. 
They have belied Yahweh, and said: It is not He, 
Nor shall evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword nor famine. 
And the prophets shall be as wind; they have no message. 


Therefore thus saith Yahweh Saboath: Thus shall be done to them; 
Because they speak thus, behold! in thy mouth will I make 

My word fire. And this people, wood; 

And it shall devour them. 
I will bring upon you a distant nation, O House of Israel. 
An ancient nation, a mighty nation, 

Whose tongue thou knowest not, nor understandest what they say. 
(Their quiver is like an open sepulchre; they are all men of might.) 
It shall eat up thy harvest and thy bread, thy flocks and herds, 

It shall eat up thy sons and daughters, thy vines and fig-trees; 

It shall batter thy fortified cities in which thou didst trust. 


And it shall come to pass when they shall say: Wherefore doth 
Yahweh, our God, these things unto us? then thou shalt answer them: 


Like as ye have forsaken Me and served alien gods in your land, 
So shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. 


Hear now this, ye foolish people, and without understanding, 
Which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not! 
Fear ye not Me? saith Yahweh, will ye not tremble before Me? 


But this people hath a stubborn and fractious mind; 
They have revolted and gone; 
Neither say they in their hearts: Let us fear Yahweh, 
That giveth rain, the early rain, the latter rain in its season. 
Who reserveth for us the weeks appointed for the harvest. 
Your iniquities have changed all this, 
Your sins have withheld good things from you. 


For among My people are found wicked men 
Lying in wait as one crouching to lay snares; 
That set a trap, they lay hold upon men. 
As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. 
They plan, yea, they carry through wicked things, 
They defend not the cause of the orphan, 
They succeed, though they vindicate not 
The rights of the poor; 
Therefore have they become great, and they prosper and wax fat. 


For these things shall I not punish? saith Yahweh, 
Or shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 
A fearful and a wonderful thing is done in the land. 
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their word. 
And My people love to have it so! 
What then will ye do in the end thereof? 


Be bold, ye sons of Benjamin! From the midst of Jerusalem 
Blow a blast on the trumpet, raise a signal on Beth-haceren! 
For calamity appears from the North, and a great destruction. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 349 


Shall I liken the daughter of Zion to a delightful pasture? 
Unto her come shepherds with their flocks; 
They pitch their tents round about her; 

Each feedeth his flocks where he chooseth. 


Suddenly war is determined against her: ‘Arise, let us go up at noon!” 
(Woe to us, for the day is declining, 
The shadows of evening are lengthening! 
“Arise, let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces! 
Hew down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem!” 


For thus saith Yahweh: This city is to be punished. 
Oppression is in the midst of her. 
As waters gush from a fountain, so doth her wickedness overflow. 
Violence and wrong-doing are heard in her; 
Suffering and slaughter are ever before Me. 
Take warning, O Jerusalem, lest I depart from thee! 
Lest I make thee desolate, an uninhabited land. 


Thus saith Yahweh: Ye shall thoroughly glean, as a vine, 
The remnant of Israel. . 
Like the grape-gatherer, thrust in again thy hand among 
The thick-woven branches. 
To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? 
Behold, their ear is dulled, the people cannot attend. 
Lo, to them the word of Yahweh is a reproach, 
They take no delight in it. 
Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh. 
I am tired of holding it in. 


I will pour it out on the children in the street, 
In assemblies of noble youths. 
Both husband and wife shall be taken, the aged with men in their prime. 
Their houses shall be turned over to others, fields and wives together. 
For I will stretch out My hand 
On the dwellers in the land, saith Yahweh. 


From the least of them even to the greatest, everyone 
Is greedy of gain. 
From the prophet to the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. 
They treat the wound of My people as if it were slight; 
Saying: Peace! Peace! when there is no peace. 
Were they ashamed when they committed the abominable act? 
Nay, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush. 
Therefore they shall fall among the slain; 
When I punish them, they shall be completely overthrown. 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
Stand in the highways and look, and ask for the old ways; 
“Where is the good way?” and walk therein, and ye shall find 
Rest for your souls. 
But they said: “We will not walk therein.” 
Yet I had appointed for thee watchmen, to say: 
Listen for the sound of the trumpet! 
But they said: “We will not listen.” 


Wherefore hear, ye nations, 
And understand, ye shepherds of their flocks! 
Behold, I am bringing evil upon this people, 
The fruit of their evil devices. 
Because they have not listened to My words, 
And My Law they have rejected. 


350 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


To what end do they bring unto Me incense from Sheba, 
And sweet cane from a distant land? 
Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable unto Me, 
Nor your sacrifices sweet. 


Therefore thus saith Yahweh: Behold, I will lay 
Stumbling-blocks before this people; 
Fathers and sons together shall stumble upon them, 
Neighbors and friends shall perish together. 


Thus saith Yahweh: 


Behold, a people cometh from the land of the north, 
A great nation is stirring from the confines of the earth. 
They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, they have no mercy. 
Their voices roar like the sea; they ride upon horses 


Against thee, O daughter of Zion, 
Like men marshalled for battle. 


We have heard the rumor thereof, our hands are enfeebled; 
Anguish seizeth upon us and pains, as of a woman in travail. 

Go not out in the fields, nor walk upon the highway, 
For there is the sword of the foe, terror is all about us. 


O daughter of My people! 


Gird thee with sackcloth, roll thyself in the dust. 
Make a mourning asforanonly son, a bitter lamentation; 
For suddenly is the destroyer coming upon us. 


Thee have I set among My people as a refiner of gold, 
That thou mayest know and purify their way. 
Brass and iron are they all, all grossly corrupt. 
They are the most rebellious of rebels, 
Going about with slanders. 
The bellows is fiercely blown, the lead is molten by fire; 
In vain the smelter refineth, the slag is not purged away. 
Refuse silver shall they be called, 
For Yahweh hath rejected them. 


D. THE COMMAND GIVEN TO JEREMIAH AFTER THE FINDING OF 
THE BOOK OF THE LAW (621 B.C.) 


CCE orld oo} 


The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying: Hearken to 
the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah and to 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and say unto them: ‘Thus saith Yahweh, 
the God of Israel: Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this 
covenant which I did set before your fathers in the day that I brought 
them forth out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace, saying: 
Hearken to My voice and do according to all that I command you, and ye 
shall be My people and [ will be your God, that I may perform the oath 
which I sware to your fathers to give them a land flowing with milk 
and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I and said: So be it, 
O Yahweh. 

Then Yahweh said unto me: Proclaim all these words in the cities 
of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ye the words of 
this covenant and do them; for I earnestly adjured your fathers in the 
day that I brought them forth from the land of Egypt even unto this 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 351 


day, rising early and admonishing them, saying: Obey My voice; but 
they obeyed not, but walked every one in the stubbornness of his evil 
heart. So I brought upon them all the judgments of this covenant, if 
they performed not what I commanded them to do. 


EK. THE GREAT TEMPLE-DISCOURSE 
(Ch. vil, 1—ix, 22; x, 17) 


The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying: Stand in 
‘ the gates of the house of Yahweh, and there proclaim this word: Hear 
the word of Yahweh the God of Israel, all ye of Judah who are entering 
in at these gates! Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will cause 
you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in vain repetitions, saying: 
The Temple of Yahweh, the Temple of Yahweh are these! For if ye 
thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye faithfully execute 
judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the 
stranger, the fatherless and the widow, and shed nof innocent blood in 
this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt; then will I cause 
you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave your fathers, for- 
ever and ever. 

Behold, ye trust in lying words that profit nothing. Will ye steal, 
murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer incense to 
Baal and go after other gods whom ye know not, and then come and 
stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say: 
We are free to do all these abominations? Is this house which is called 
by My name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I have 
surely seen it, saith Yahweh. 

Go now to My place in Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell at 
the first, and see what I did to it on account of the wickedness of My 
people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these deeds, saith 
Yahweh, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, and ye 
heeded not; and I called you but ye answered not; I will do unto the 
house which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and to the place 
which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did unto Shiloh; and I will 
cast you out of My sight as I have cast out all your brethren, even the 
whole seed of Ephraim. 


Therefore, pray not thou for this people, 
Neither lift up in their cause cry nor prayer. 
Neither make intercession with Me, for I will not hear thee. 


Seest thou not what they are doing in the cities of Judah, 
And in the streets of Jerusalem? 
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, 
And the women knead the dough into cakes for the queen of heaven 
And pour out drink-offerings to other gods, 
That they may provoke Me to anger. 


Do they provoke Me to anger? saith Yahweh. 
Do they not rather provoke themselves to their own shame? 
Therefore thus saith Yahweh: 
Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out on this place 
Over man and over beast, upon the trees of the field 
And the fruit of the ground. 
And it shall burn, it shall not be quenched. 


352 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Add your burnt- 
offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your 
fathers nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the 
land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices, but this thing I 
did command them: MHearken to My voice, and I will be your God and 
ye shall be My people; and walk ye in all the ways that I have com- 
manded you, that it may be well with you. But they hearkened not nor 
inclined their ear, but walked in the stubbornness of their wicked heart, 
backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth 
out of the land of Egypt even unto this day, I have sent unto you all 
My servants the prophets, rising early and sending; yet they hearkened 
not unto Me nor gave heed, but became more stubborn than their fathers. 
Therefore thou shalt speak this word unto them: 


This is the nation that hath not hearkened 
To the voice of Yahweh, their God, 
Nor accepted correction; truth hath perished and is cut off 
From their mouth. 


Cut off thy hair, O Judah, cast it away; raise a lamentation 
On the high places; 
For Yahweh hath rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath. 


For the children of Judah have done evil in Mine eyes, saith Yahweh. 
They have set up their abominations in the house which is called by 
My name to pollute it; they have built the high places of Topheth in the 
Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, 
which I commanded not nor thought of. Wherefore behold, the days 
come, saith Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor the 
Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For in Topheth 
they shall bury till there be no more room. And the carcasses of this 
people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven and for the beasts of 
the earth, and none shall frighten them away. 


Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah 
And from the streets of Jerusalem, 

The sound of joy and the sound of gladness, 

The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, 
And the land shall become a desolation. 


At that time, saith Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones of the 
kings of Judah and the bones of his nobles, and the bones of the priests 
and of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
out of their graves; and they shall spread them before the sun and the 
moon, and all the host of heaven whom they have loved and whom 
they have served, whom they have sought and whom they have wor- 
shipped; they shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be for dung 
on the face of the earth. And death shall be chosen rather than life 
by all the residue of them that remain of this people which remain in 
all the places whither I have driven them, saith Yahweh. 

Thus saith Yahweh: 


Shall men fall and not rise? Does one turn away and not return? 
Why then is this people given to persistent backsliding? 
They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. 


I have hearkened and heard, but no man repenteth of his guilt. 
Every one dasheth on in his course, 
As a horse rushing headlong into battle. 
Even the stork in the heavens knoweth her seasons; 
The turtle, the swallow, the crane observe the time of their coming 
But My people will not foresee the judgment of Yahweh. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 353 


How can ye say: We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us? 
Then surely, the mischievous pens of scribes have made it a lie 
And have rejected the word of Yahweh. And what is their wisdom? 
I will scrape up their fruits, saith Yahweh7* 
But there are no grapes on the vine, 
Nor figs on the fig-tree, and the foliage is withered. 


Let us enter the fortified cities, and be destroyed there. 
For Yahweh, our God, hath destroyed us; let us drink poppy-juice 
Because we have sinned against Him. 
We expected peace, but no good came! 
A time of healing, but behold, terrors! 
The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; 
At the sound of the neighing of his strong ones 
The whole land trembled. 
Lo, they have come and have devoured the land, 
The city and they that dwell in her. 


For behold, I send against you serpents, 
Vipers, against which there is no charm, 
And they shall bite you, saith Yahweh. 


(My cheerfulness is crushed beyond recovery, 
My heart is faint within me. 
Lo, the cry of the daughter of my people 
From a far-distant land!) 
Is not Yahweh in Zion? Is there no king in her? 
Why have they moved Me to anger with their graven images? 
With strange vanities? 


(The harvest is past, the summer ended, and we are not saved! 
Because of the destruction of my people, I am destroyed; 
I mourn, desolation hath fastened upon me. 


Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? 
Why then is there no healing for the daughter of my people? 
O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fount of tears! 


That I might weep day and night for the slain 
Of the daughter of my people! 


O, that I had in the desert a traveller’s lodge 
That I might leave my people and go far from them! 
For they are all adulterers, an assembly of deceivers. 
And they bend their tongues like their bow, to lies. 
And they are not valiant for truth in the land.) 
They proceed from evil to evil, and know not Me, saith Yahweh. 


Let everyone keep watch on his neighbor, 
Nor confide in his brother; 
For every brother will supplant his brother, 
And every neighbor will go about, slandering. 
And each will deceive his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. 


They have taught their tongue to speak lies, they exhaust 
Themselves in perversity. 
Thy dwelling is in the midst of deceit; 
- Through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith Yahweh. 


Therefore thus saith Yahweh: 
Behold, I will smelt them and purify them, for what else 
Can I do for My people? 


1The three verses omitted are repeated from ch, vi, 12-15. 


354 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL: 


Their tongue is a sharp arrow. 


One greets his neighbor with “Peace!” 


deceit is the word of their mouth. 
but inwardly plots against him. 


Shall I not punish them for these things? saith Yahweh; 


Upon such a nation as this, 
Upon the mountains I will lift up 
A lamentation over the pastures 

Because they are burned up 

Both the birds of the heavens 
And I will make Jerusalem ruins, 
The cities of Judah I will give 


shall I not avenge Myself? 

a weeping and a wailing, 

now laid waste; 

and no man passeth. 

and the beasts are fled, gone. 
a den of jackals; 

to destruction, 


With not an inhabitant. 


Who is the man so wise that he may understand this? 


To whom hath the mouthof Yahweh 
Why the land is ruined, burned up, 


Because they have forsaken My law 


And have not obeyed My voice 
But have walked after the Baalim 


spoken, that he may declare 
like a desert untravelled? 
which I set before them, 

nor walked accordingly; 

as their fathers taught them. 


They have walked according to the obstinacy of their own heart. 


Therefore thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: 
Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, 
I will give them juice of poppies to drink; 
I will scatter them also among peoples 
Whom neither they nor their fathers have known; 
And I will send atter them the sword, until I have consumed them. 


Send for the mourning women that they may come! 


Send for the wise women! 


Let them make haste 


And raise up for us a wailing; 
That our eyes may pour down tears, our eyelids flow with water. 
For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion; 
How are we ruined! 


We are put to exceeding shame, 


Hear, 


for our dwellings cast us out! 


O women, and let your ears receive My words! 


Teach your daughters wailing, each to her neighbor a dirge. 
Death hath come up into our windows, hath entered our palaces, 
To cut off our children trom the str eets, 
The youths from the broad, open cour ts. 
The dead bodies of men fali as dung upon the open field, 
As the handful after the harvester, and no one gathers them. 


Gather up thy wares from out the land, 
Thou that restest in a place besieged 
For thus saith Yahweh: 


Tam hurling out at once 
And I will harass them 


the inhabitants of this land, 
that they may be saved. 


F. THE Port’s LAMENTATION FOR THE IMMINENT DESTRUCTION 


OF HIS 


PEOPLE 


(Ch. x, 18-24) 


Woe is me for my hurt! 


my wound is grievous! 


But I said: This is my grief, and I must bear it. 
My tent is ruined, and all my cordage is torn away. 


My children are gone forth from me, 


and lo, they are not! 


None any more to spread my tent, and to put up my curtains! 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 355 


For the shepherds are become as brutes 

And have not inquired of Yahweh. 
Therefore they have not taught wisely, 
And all their flocks are scattered. 


Hark! News! Lo, it cometh, a mighty din from the northland! 
To make the cities of Judah a waste, a haunt of wild beasts! 
I know, O Yahweh, it isnot for man — to choose his way; 
To no one living is it given to direct his steps. 
Correct us, O Yahweh, but leniently and not in wrath, 
Lest Thou leave us few! 


G. AFTER THE REACTION FROM JOSIAH’S GREAT REFORM 
(Ghecxi,.951:4) 


Yahweh said unto me: A conspiracy is discovered among the men 
of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned 
back to the iniquities of their fathers which refused to hear my words 
and went after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the 
house of Judah have broken the covenant which I made with their 
fathers. Therefore thus saith Yahweh: Behold, I will bring evil upon 
them which they shall be unable to escape; and, though they shall cry 
unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Let the cities of Judah and 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry unto the gods to whom they 
offer incense; but these will not save them in the time of trouble. For, 
as the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah; and to the number 
of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to the shameful thing, 
—altars to burn incense unto Baal. Therefore, pray not thou for this 
people, nor lift up a cry nor a supplication for them; for I will not 
hearken when they shall cry unto me in their trouble. 


H. ON A CONSPIRACY OF HIS FELLOW-TOWNSMEN AGAINST HIM 
(Oli x18) 15218} 


; and Yahweh gave me knowledge of it. 
And I knew of it; : Yea, Thou didst show me their doings. 
But I was like a lamb, an ox led to the slaughter; 
I knew not that they had devised such machinations against me; 
“Let us hew down the tree in its freshness, 
Let us cut him off from the land of the living, 
That his name be no more remembered.” 
But Thou, O Yahweh, that judgest righteously, 
Proving the reins and the heart, 
Make me to see Thy vengeance upon them, for unto Thee 
Have I revealed my cause. 


Therefore, thus saith Yahweh concerning the men of Anathoth that 
seek my life, saying: “Prophesy not in the name of Yahweh, that thou 
diest not at our hands.” 


Behold, I will punish them. The youths shall die by the sword, 
Their sons and their daughters shall die by famine 
And no remnant of them shall be saved. 
For I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth 
In the year of their visitation. 


356 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


I. Two SYMBOLIC ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE CORRUPTION OF THE NATION, 
AND THE PROPHECY OF PUNISHMENT FOR PROPHETS AND PEOPLE 


(Ch. xiii, 2-11; 12-14, 18-22) 


Then Yahweh said unto me: Go, buy thee a linen waist-cloth, and 
put it about thy loins, but put it not in water. So I bought a waist- 
cloth, according to the word of Yahweh, and put it on my loins. And 
the word of Yahweh came to me a second time, saying: Take the 
waist-cloth which thou didst buy, which is upon thy loins, and arise, 
go to Perath, and hide it there in a cleft in the rock. So I went and 
hid it near Perath, as Yahweh commanded me. 

And it came to pass, after many days, that Yahweh said to me: 
Arise, go to Perath, and take thence the waist-cloth which I commanded 
thee to hide there. Then I went to Perath and digged, and took the 
waist-cloth from the place where I had hid it; and behold, the waist- 
cloth was ruined; it was not fit for anything. 

Then the word of Yahweh came unto me, saying: Thus saith 
Yahweh, even so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the arrogance of 
Jerusalem. This wicked people, which refuse to heed My words, which 
go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall be like 
this waist-cloth which is fit for nothing. For, as the waist-cloth 
clingeth to the loins of a man, so have I called the whole house of 
Israel and of Judah to cleave to me, saith Yahweh, to be My people 
for My renown and for My.praise and My glory; but they would not 
hear. 

And thou shalt also say unto them this: Thus saith Yahweh, the 
God of Israel: Every bottle is to be filled with wine. And they will 
say unto thee: Do we not know very well that every bottle is to be 
filled with wine? Then thou shalt say to them this: Thus saith 
Yahweh, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the 
kings that sit upon David’s throne and the priests and the prophets 
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. And I will 
dash them one against another, the fathers and the sons together, saith 
pen I will not pity nor have mercy, nor spare from destroying 
them. 


Say to the king and the queen; Humble yourselves! sink down! 
For your princedoms shall fall, even the crown of your glory. 
The cities of the south shall be closed, with none to open them. 
All Judah shall go into exile, her wealth all stripped away. 


Lift up your eyes and see these who come from the north! 
Where is the herd once given thee, thy glorious flock? 
What canst thou say when He punisheth thee? 
For thou hast trained these to be captains, 
Yea, to be lords over thee. 
Shall not sorrows take thee, like those of a woman in travail? 
And if thou say in thine heart: 
Whence come these things unto me? 
For the greatness of thy sins are thy skirts uncovered, 
Thy heels laid bare. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH : 357 


J. WRITTEN DURING A FAMINE 
(Ch. xiv, 1, 10-16) 


The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.” 
Thus saith Yahweh unto this people: They have so loved to wander 
and have not refrained their feet, that Yahweh doth not accept them; 
He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. Then said 
Yahweh unto me: Pray not for this people, that it may be well with 
them. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer 
burnt-offering and an oblation, I will not accept them; but I will con- 
sume them by the sword and by the famine, and by the pestilence. 

Then said I: Ah, Yahweh, our God, behold, the prophets say unto 
them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I 
will give you assured peace in this place. Then said Yahweh unto me: 
The prophets prophesy lies in My name; I sent them not, neither have I 
commanded them, neither spake I unto them. They prophesy unto 
you a false vision and divination, a thing of naught and the deceit of 
their own heart. 

Therefore thus saith Yahweh: Concerning the prophets. that 
prophesy in My name and [I sent them not, yet they say: Sword and 
famine shall not be in this land,—by sword and famine shall those 
prophets be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shal] 
be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the 
sword, and there shall be none to bury them,—them, their wives, their 
sons and their daughters; for I will pour out their wickedness upon 
them. 


(The Same Continued, Ch. xv, 1-4) 


Then said Yahweh unto me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before 
Me, yet would not My soul be inclined toward them. Send this people 
from before My face; let them go forth. And if they shall say unto thee: 
Whither shall we go? then say thou unto them: 


Thus saith Yahweh: Such as are for death, to death; 
Those for the sword, to the sword; 
Such as are for famine, to famine; 
Such as are for exile, to exile. 
And I will appoint for them, four dooms: 
The sword to slay, the dogs to tear; the fowls of heaven 
And the beasts of the earth 
To devour and to destroy. 
And I will cause them to be removed 
Into all the kingdoms of the earth. 


K. ON THE CONDITION OF ZION AFTER THE FALL OF THE CITY 
(Ch. xv, 5-9) 


Who will have pity upon thee, or who shall bemoan thee, 
Or who shall turn aside to ask, O Jerusalem, of thy welfare? 
Thou hast rejected Me, saith Yahweh; thou hast gone backward. 
And I have stretched out My hand and have destroyed thee. 
I am weary of repenting. 
1Vy. 2-9, omitted here, are an exquisite lament by a late poet upon a dearth in his 


own day. Some editor has inserted it here as appropriate to these conditions, although 
its feeling is quite opposed to Jeremiah’s. It will be found in the Appendix to Booklet I. 


358 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land. 
I bereave them of children, I destroy My people, 
Since they reform not their ways. 
Their widows are increased in My sight above the sand of the sea. 
Against the mother of youths I have brought a spoiler at noon 
To fall upon her suddenly, and terrors upon the city. 
She that hath borne seven shall languish, 
Her spirit droopeth. ; 
Her sun hath gone down while it is yet day; she is ashamed 
And confounded. 
And the residue of them will I deliver to the sword 
Before their enemies, saith Yahweh. 


L. THE Poet’s COMPLAINT FOR HIS NATION AND THE ANSWERS 
OF YAHWEH 


(Ch. xv; 10-489 xvi, )-12, 21) 


Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me, 
A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth. 
I have neither lent on usury, nor have men lent me on usury, 
Yet every one of them doth curse me. 


Yahweh saith: 
Verily, it shall be well with thee; I will even cause 
The enemy to help thee 


In the time of evil, and in the time of affliction. 
Can iron be broken? Lo! armor of brass is thy strength. 
O Yahweh, Thou knowest! Remember me and think of me, 
And avenge me of my persecutors. 
Let me not pass away, for Thou art long-suffering! 
Thy commands were discovered, and I made them my joy; 


Thy words were a joy to me anda gladness for my heart, 
Because I am called by Thy name, 
O Yahweh, Thou God of Hosts! 
I sat not nor rejoiced in the assembly of the merry-makers; 
Because of Thy hand I sat apart, for Thou hast filled me 
With indignation. 
Why is my pain perpetual, my wound incurable, 
Refusing to be healed? 
Wilt Thou be to me as a transient brook, as waters that fail? 


Thus saith Yahweh: Enter not into the house of mourning 
Neither go to lament nor bemoan them. 
My peace have I taken from this people, 
My loving-kindness and My mercies. 
Both great and small shall die, they shall not be buried, 
Nor shall men lament nor cut themselves, nor for them 
Make themselves bald. 
Neither shall men break bread for the mourners, 
To comfort them for the dead, 
Nor shall they bring them the cup of consolation. 
To drink for their father or mother. 
Thou shalt not go with them into the house of feasting 
To sit with them to eat and to drink. 


For thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: 
Behold, I will cause to cease in this place, 
In your eyes and in your day, 
The voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, 
The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 359 


And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these 
words and they shall say unto thee: Wherefore hath Yahweh pro- 
nounced all this great evil against us? or, What is our iniquity or our 
sin that we have committed against Yahweh, our God? then thou shalt 
say unto them: 


Because your fathers forsook Me and walked after other gods, 
And served them and worshiped them, and did not keep My laws. ~ 
And ye have done worse than your fathers; 

For behold, ye walk each one 
In the obstinacy of his evil heart, 
_ §$o that ye hearken not to Me; 
Therefore I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, 
And neither did your fathers. 
There shall ye serve other gods, day and night. 
Behold, this once I will cause them to know My hand and My might, 
They shall know that My name is Yahweh. 


M. THE PARABLE OF THE POTTER. 
(Ch. xviii, 1-17) 


The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying: Arise, 
and go down to the potter’s house, and there will I cause thee to hear 
My words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was 
making a vessel on the wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay 
was marred in the hand of the potter; and he made it again into another 
vessel, as seemed good in the eyes of the potter. 

Then came to me the word of Yahweh, saying: O House of Israel, 
can I not do with thee as doth this potter? Behold, as the clay in the 
hand of the potter, so art thou in My hand, O House of Israel. At the 
moment that I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a king- 
dom, to uproot and to pull down and to destroy it; if that nation against 
whom I have spoken shall turn from its evil-doing, I will repent of the 
evil that I thought to do unto them. Also, in the moment that I am 
speaking concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to 
plant it; if it do evil in my sight that it obey not My voice, then I will 
repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. 

Now, therefore, go, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith Yahweh, Behold, I am framing evil 
against you and devising a plan against you; return now everyone from 
his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. But they 
answer: We have no hope; for according to our own devices we will 
walk, and after the evil imaginations of our hearts we will do. There- 
fore thus saith Yahweh: 


Ask ye now among the nations: Who hath heard such things? 


An exceedingly horrible thing hath the virgin of Israel done. 
Doth the snow of Lebanon fail from under the rock in the field? 
Or shall the cooling showers for heaven be dried up? 


But My people have forgotten Me; they have burned incense in vain; 
They have stumbled in their course from the ancient paths 

To walk in untrodden ways; to make their land desolate, 

A lasting scorn. 
Everyone passing by her shall be amazed, and shall shake his head. 
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. 
I will show them My back and not My face 
In the day of their calamity. 


360 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


N. THE PLoT AGAINST JEREMIAH 
(Ch. xviii, 18) 


Then they said: Come ye, let us devise a plot against Jeremiah; for 
instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, 
nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us smite him-with-the- 
tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. 


O. JEREMIAH’S PRAYER 
(Ch. xviii, 19-23) 


Give heed unto me, O Yahweh, and listen to the voice of mine ad- 
versaries. Shall good be repaid with evil? for they have digged a pit 
for my soul? Remember that I stood before Thee to speak good for 
them, and to turn away Thy wrath from them. Therefore, deliver up 
their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the edge of the 
sword; let their wives be bereaved of their children, and become widows; 
let their men be put to death, and their young men be slain by the sword 
in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when Thou shalt bring 
a troop suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to catch me, 
and laid snares for my feet. And Thou, O Yahweh, knowest all their 
counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot 
out their sins from Thy sight; but let them be overthrown before Thee. 
Deal with them in the time of Thine anger. 


P, THE PARABLE OF THE BROKEN BOTTLE 
(Ch. xiv, 1-15) 


Thus said Yahweh: Go and get an earthenware bottle of the potter, 
and certain elders of the people and of the priests, and go forth to the 
Valley of Ben-Hinnom which is near the entrance of the east gate, and 
proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, and say: Hear ye the 
word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem! 

Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring 
evil upon this place, so that the ears of every one that heareth of it shall 
tingle. Because they have forsaken Me and made this place alien to Me 
and have burned incense therein to other gods whom neither they nor 
their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah; and have filled this 
place with the blood of innocents, and have built also the high places 
of Baal to burn their sons with fire as burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I 
commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into My mind; therefore, 
behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that this place shall no more be 
called Topheth nor the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaugh- 
ter. And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this 
place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, 
and by the hands of them that seek their lives; and their carcasses will 
I give to be meat for the fowls of the heavens and for the beasts of the 
earth. And I will make this city desolate and an hissing; every one 
that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of the plagues 
thereof. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the 
flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 361 


friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they 
that seek their lives, shall straiten them. 

Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with 
thee, and shalt say unto them: ‘Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth: Even 
so will I break this people and this city as one breaketh a potter’s vessel 
that cannot be made whole again. And they shall bury in Topheth till 
there be no place to bury. Thus will I do to this place, saith Yahweh, 
and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Topheth; and 
the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be 
defiled as the place of Topheth, because of all the houses upon whose 
roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have 
poured out drink-offerings to other gods. 

Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, whither Yahweh had sent him to 
prophesy; and he stood in the court of the house of Yahweh, and said 
to all the people: Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: 
Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her villages all the evil 
that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their 
necks, that they might not hear My words. 


R. JEREMIAH IS PUT IN THE STOCKS 
(Ch. xx, 1-6) 


Now Pashhur, son of Immer the priest, who was governor in the 
house of Yahweh, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. Then 
Pashhur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that 
were in the high gate of Benjamin, near the house of Yahweh. And it 
came to pass on the morrow, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out 
of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, Yahweh hath not called 
thy name Pashhur (Redeemed) but Magor-missabib (Terror-on-every- 
side). For thus saith Yahweh: Behold, I will make thee a terror to 
thyself and to all thy friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their 
enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it. And I will give all Judah into 
the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into 
Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. Moreover, I will deliver 
all the strength of this city and all the gains thereof, and all the precious 
things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hands 
of their enemies which shall spoil them and take them and carry them 
to Babylon. And thou, Pashhur, and all that dwell in thine house shall 
go into captivity; and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt 
die and shalt be buried, thou and all thy friends to whom thou hast 
prophesied lies.* 


S. In Spire oF His PERSECUTIONS, JEREMIAH WILL STILL 
CONTINUE HIS WARNINGS 


(Ghsxxag-12) 


O Yahweh, Thou didst entice me, and I was enticed. 

Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed. 

I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me; 

For as often as I speak, I predict violence and destruction. 
The word of Yahweh hath become my daily taunt and reproach. 


Then I said: I will not mention Him nor speak in His name. 


1 Verses 1-6 are probably taken from the Biography of the prophet to explain the 
triumphant strophes with which Booklet I closes. 


362 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


But then there burned in my heart as it were a fire in my bones; 

I grew weary of keeping silence, I could no longer forbear. 

For I heard the defaming of many, Terror on every side. 

“Prophesy!” cried my familiar friends, lying in wait for my halting; 

(Perchance he may be enticed and we shall entrap him, 
And wreak our vengeance upon him.) 

But Yahweh is on my side as a mighty warrior; 

Verily, my persecutors shall stumble, they shall not prevail; 

They shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper, 

Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. 


Sing unto Yahweh! Praise ye Yahweh! 
Sing unto Yahweh! Praise ye Yahweh! 
For he hath delivered the soul of the needy 
From the hands of evil-doers. 


APPENDIX TO BOOKLET I 


GIVING NON-JEREMIANIG PASSAGES FOUND IN IT 


A Late INTERPOLATION IN JEREMIAH’S FIRST DISCOURSE (B)* 
(Ch. ii, 14-19) 
Is Israel a servant or home-born slave? Why is he now a prey? 
Over him young lions are roaring. They gave forth their cry; 
They have laid his land waste; his cities are burned up, 
Without an inhabitant. 


The children of Noph and Tahpanhes also 
Have broken the crown of his head. 


Hast thou not brought this on thyself? 
Thou didst forsake Yahweh, thy God, who led thee on thy way. 
Now why art thou on the road to Egypt? 
Is it to drink of the waters of Sihor? 
Or why art thou on the road to Assyria? 
To drink of the great river? 


Thy offenses shall be a punishment to thee, 
Thy backslidings shall judge thee. 
Know now and see, that thy forsaking of Yahweu 
Was evil and bitter to thee, 
And that no fear of Me is in thee, saith Yahweh, thy God. 


A VERY LATE 
PREFACE TO THE PROPHECY OF THE SCYTHIAN INVASION (C) 


(Ch. ili, 6-iv, 2; ix, 1-2) 

Yahweh said unto me in the days of Josiah the king: Hast thou 
seen what backsliding Israel hath done? She hath gone up on every 
high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the 
harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things: Turn thou 
unto Me. But she returned not, and her faithless sister Judah saw it. 
And I saw that when, for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel 
had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of 


1The capital letters in parentheses refer the reader to the divisions in the preceding 
Booklet, from which these are excerpted. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 363 


divorce, yet her faithless sister Judah feared not, but went and played 
the harlot also. And it came to pass, through the lightness of her whore- 
dom, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stocks and 
stones. And yet, for all this, her faithless sister Judah hath not turned 
unto Me with all her heart, but feignedly, saith Yahweh. 

And Yahweh said unto me: Apostate Israel hath justified herself 
more than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words towards the 
north; and thou shalt say: 


Return, O apostate Israel! No longer will I look 
In anger upon you, for I am merciful. 
I will not keep Mine anger for ever; 
Only acknowledge thy guilt, for against thy God. thou hast sinned, 
And hast opened thy ways to aliens under every green tree. 
But unto My voice thou hast not listened, saith Yahweh. 


Return, O apostate children, saith Yahweh, for I am married to you. 
I will choose you, one of a city and two of a family, 
And I will bring you to Zion. 
And I will give you shepherds after My own heart, 
Who shall feed you with knowledge and wisdom. 
And when ye shall be multiplied and increased in the land. 
No more shall ye say “The Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh,” 
Nor shall it come to mind: none shall remember it, 
Nor visit it, nor shall it be made again. 


In that day they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of Yahweh; 
And to her shall be gathered all nations 
To the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem; 
And no more shall they walk in the obstinacy of their evil heart. 
The House of Judah shall walk with the House of Israel; 
Together shall they come from the northland to the land 
That I gave to their fathers for a possession. 


Then I said: How like sons I will treat thee, 
And give thee a pleasant land! 
A glorious inheritance among the nations! 
And I said: Thou shalt call Me “My Father”, 
Thou shalt not turn aside from Me. 
But as a woman is faithless to her lover, so verily have ye 
Been faithless unto Me, O House of Israel. 


A voice is heard in the high places, 

Weeping and prayers of the Children of Israel, 
For they have perverted their way, 
They have forgotten Yahweh, their God. 


Return, ye apostate sons, and I will heal your apostasy! 
Behold, we come unto Thee, for Thou art Yahweh, our God. 
Truly, in vain from the hills, from the crowds on the mountains, 
Is salvation for Israel; only from Yahweh, our God. 


For, from our youth, Baal hath devoured 
The fruit of our fathers’ toil,— 
Their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 
We lie down in our shame, and shame is our covering. 
For against Yahweh, our God, we have sinned, 
We, and our fathers. 
From our youth even unto this day we have not obeyed 
The voice of Yahweh, our God. 


364 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


If thou wilt return, O Israel, return unto Me, 
If thou wilt put thine abominations away, 
Thou shalt not be thrust away. 
And thou shalt swear “By the life of Yahweh” in truth, 
In justice and righteousness; 
And in Him shall the nations be blessed, 
And in Him shall they glory. 


A LATE APPENDIX TO THE TEMPLE DISCOURSE (E) 
(GR ike 2-2 ex ad Gy 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man 
Glory in his might 
Let not the rich man glory in riches; but let him 
That glorieth, glory in this, 
That he understandeth and knoweth Me: that I am Yahweh, 
Who doth act with Mercy, Justice, and Righteousness 
In the earth; 
For in these things I delight, saith Yahweh. 


Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will punish all them that 
are cir cumeised in their uncircumcision: Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, 
and the children of Ammon, and Moah, and all that have the corners of 
their beards polled that dwell in the wilderness. 


For all the nations are uncircumcised; but the House of Israel 
Are uncircumcised in the heart. 


Hear ye the word which Yahweh speaketh unto you, O House of Israel! 
Thus saith Yahweh: 


Learn not ye the way of thenations and be not dismayed 
At the signs of the heavens, because the nations are dismayed. 
For the rites of these peoples are vain. 

One heweth a tree of the forest for the work of the artisan; 
They adorn it will silver and gold, with hammers and nails; 
They fasten it that it be not unsteady. 

Like a palm-tree of graven work, they cannot speak, 
They must needs be carried, for they cannot walk. 
Be not afraid of them; they can do no harm; 
But neither have they power to do any good. 


There is none like unto Thee, O Yahweh; great Thou art, 
And great is the power of Thy name. 
Who would not reverence Thee, O King of Nations! 
For to Thee is reverence due. 
Among all the wise men of the nations, in all their kingdoms, 
There is none like unto Thee! 
They are altogether foolish and brutish. 
Their religion is one of frauds, of gods made of trees; 
Plates of beaten silver are brought from 'Tarshish, 
And gold from Uphaz; 
Work from the hand of the smelter, and of the graver; 
Their clothing of blue and purple, the work of skilled men. 


But the true God, the Living God, is Yahweh, the Eternal King. 
At His wrath the earth shall tremble, the Nations are unable 

To abide His indignation. 

Thus shall ye say unto them: 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 365 


The gods which have not made the heavens and the earth, 
Shall perish from the earth, from beneath these heavens. 
He hath made the earth by His power, and established the world 
By His wisdom, 
And hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion. 


When He giveth forth His voice, lo, a tumult of waters in heaven! 
He maketh vapors arise from the ends of the earth. 
He maketh lightnings with rain 
And bringeth forth wind from His treasures. 


All mankind is brutish and is without knowledge. 
Every artist is put to shame by his molten image, 

For his castings are falsehood, there is no breath in them. 
They are all vanity, the creations of delusion. 

In the time of their visitation they shall perish. 


Not like these is the Portion of Jacob. 
The Framer of All Things is He, 
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; 
Yahweh Sabaoth is His name. 


A FRAGMENT 


ECheex 20 jie 
Pour out Thy fury uponthenations that know Thee not, 
Upon the families that call not upon Thy name; 


For they have devoured Jacob’ and he is destroyed; 
They have put an end to him and made his habitation desolate. 


ANOTHER FRAGMENT 
(Ch. xi, 13-15) 


What hath My beloved to do in My house, 
Who hath wrought evil with many? 
The holy flesh hath passed from thee, because of thy wickedness. 
An Olive-tree, fresh and fair of form, once thou wert called. 
With a noise of great tumult, 
Fire is burning and destroying thy branches; 

For Yahweh Sabaoth who planted thee hath pronounced evil against 
thee, because of the evil of the House of Israel and of the House of 
Judah, which they have wrought for themselves in provoking Me by 
offering incense to Baal. 


Srx FRAGMENTS PRESERVED IN CHAPTER XII? 


Righteous art Thou, O Yahweh! but let me talk of Thy judgments. 
Why doth the way of the wicked prosper, yet cheats and traitors are at 
ease? 
Thou hast planted them, they take root, they grow and bear fruit. 
Near art Thou to their mouth, but far from their inward parts. 
But Thou, O Yahweh, knowest me, Thou hast seen and proved my heart. 
Pull them out, like sheep for the slaughter. 
Prepare them for the day of slaughter. 
(Gh xii, 4173) 
1A prayer for vengeance upon the people who have already despoiled Judah. Exilic. 
2 Chapter xii is a collection of short poems showing no trace of Jeremianic authorship, 
picturing in varying imagery the desolation of Zion and the misery of her exiled people. 


The last one gives a promise of restoration, which suggests that it is of a later date 
than the rest. 


366 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


How long shall the land mourn, and every herb wither 
For the wickedness of them that dwell therein? 
The beasts are consumed, and the birds, 
For they have said: He shall not see 
The end of us ali. 
(Chasis) 


If thou have run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, 
How canst thou contend with war-horses? 
If thou didst put thy trust in a land of peace, 
How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? 
For even thy brethren and thy father’s house, 
Even they have betrayed thee; 
Believe them not then, though they speak fairly to thee. 
(Ch. xii, 5-6) 


I have forsaken My house, I have given up My heritage; 
I have given the beloved of My soul into the hands of foes. 
Mine heritage is to Me like a lioness in the forest. 
She hath given forth her voice against Me, 
Therefore have I hated her. 
Mine heritage is to Me like a bird of prey; 
The birds round about are against her. 
Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard, 
They have trodden My lot underfoot; 
They have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. 
They have made it desolate; and, desolate, it mourneth to Me. 


The whole land is made desolate, because no man careth for it. 
Upon all the bare heights in the desert have spoilers come. 
From one end of the land even to the other, 
No flesh shall have peace. 
They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns, 
They shall put themselves to pain, but profit not. 
They shall be ashamed of their harvest 
Because of the fierce wrath of Yahweh. 
(Ch. xii, 7-12) 


Thus saith Yahweh: As for all My neighbors that touch the inherit- 
ance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit, behold, I will 
pluck them up from all their land, and will pluck up the House of 
Judah from among them. 


And it shall come to pass, after I have plucked them out, 
That I will have compassion upon them, 
And I will return and bring them again 
Every one to his heritage, and every one to his land. 
And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, 
To swear by My name, the Living Yahweh, as they taught My sons 
To swear by Baal, 
They shall then be built up in the midst of My people; 
But, if they will not obey, I will root out and destroy 
That nation, saith Yahweh. 
(Ch. xii, 14-17) 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 367 


A WARNING AND A GLOSS INTERPOLATED IN (J) 
(CU RPT 25-4 25-27) 
Hear ye and give ear; be not proud, for Yahweh speaketh. 
Give glory to Yahweh, your God, before He spreadeth darkness. 
Before He cause your feet to stumble on the dark mountains; 
And while ye wait for light, He turn it into the shadowof Death, 
And into swart darkness. 
But, if ye will sit and hear it, My soul in secret places 
Shall weep because of your pride, because the flock of Yahweh 
Is held captive. 


Can a Cushite change his skin or a leopard his spots? then may ye 
also become good, who have chosen the evil. Therefore will I scatter 
them as chaff passeth away before the wind of the desert. This is thy 
lot, the portion meted out to thee by Me, saith Yahweh, because thou 
hast forgotten Me, and hast trusted to falsehood. Therefore will I pull 
thy skirts over thy face, that thy shame may appear. Woe to thee, 
Jerusalem! When shall it be? 


A PoEM ON A LATE DrRouGHT APPLIED TO THE EARLIER ONE LAMENTED 
BY JEREMIAH (L) 


(Ch. xiv, 2-6, 8-9) 


Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish, 
They bow down in gloom even to the ground. 
The cry of Jerusalem riseth. 
Her nobles have sent their little ones to the waters 
They came to the wells, but found no water; 
They returned with their vessels empty. 
They were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. 
The parched ground is cracked, for there have been no showers 
In the land. 
The ploughmen feel disgraced; they have hidden their faces. 
Even the doe in the field hath dropped her young 
And forsaken it, because there is no herbage. 
Upon the bare heights, the wild asses stand waiting, 
They snuff up the wind like jackals; their eyes are failing 
Because there is no grass.’ 


O Thou Hope of Israel; The Saviour thereof in time of trouble! 
Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, 
And as a sea-faring man that turneth aside 
To tarry for a night? 
Why shouldest Thou be as a man overcome, 
A warrior that cannot save? 
Yet Thou, O Yahweh, art in the midst of us! 
And we are called by Thy name. 
O leave us not! 


1Verse 7, which introduces a very different note, is omitted. Probably a gloss. 


368 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


LATE INTERPOLATIONS IN CHAPTERS XIV AND XV 
(Gh: xiv, 19-21) 
Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath Thy soul loathed Zion? 
Why hast Thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? 
We looked for peace, and there is nothing good! 
For the time of healing, and behold, trouble! 
We acknowledge our wickedness, O Yahweh, 
And the iniquity of our fathers; 
For we have and against Thee; do not despise us, 
r Thy name’s sake. 
Do not eens the throne of Thy glory! 
Remember! Break not Thy covenant with us. 
(Ch. xiv, 19-21) 


Are there any among the idols of the nations 
That can cause rain? 
Or can the heavens bestow showers? 
Art Thou not He, O Yahweh, our God? 
Therefore will we wait upon Thee, for Thou hast made 
all these things. 
(Che xiv; ize) 


Yahweh hath said: Verily, it shall be well with thy remnant; verily, 
I will cause the enemy to treat thee well in the time of evil and in the 
time of affliction. Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? 
Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, 
and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders. And I will make thee 
to pass with thine enemies into a land thou knowest not; for a fire is 
kindled in Mine anger which shall burn forever. 

(Ch. xv, 4141-14) 


Thus saith Yahweh: If thou repent, then will I restore thee, 
And thou shalt stand before Me; 
And if thou separate the precious from the vile, 
Thou shalt be as My mouth. 
Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them, 
And I will make thee unto this people a brazen fenced wall. 
And they shall fight against thee, 
But they shall not prevail against thee.-: 
For I am with thee to save thee 
And to deliver thee, saith Yahweh. 
And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, 
And I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible. 
(Ch. xv, 19-21) 


FRAGMENTS OF PROSE AND VERSE 
INTERWOVEN BY A LATE EDITOR TO MAKE A CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE 
(Ch. xvi, 14-xvii) 

Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that it shall no more be said: 
Yahweh liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of 
Egypt; but Yahweh liveth that brought up the children of Israel from 
the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them; 
and I will bring them again into their own land which I gave their 
fathers. 

(Ch, xvi, 14-15) 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 369 


Hast thou utterly rejected Yahweh? Doth thy soul loathe Zion? 
Lo, I will send for many fishers, and they shall fish them; 
Then will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them 
Out of the holes of the rocks of every mountain and of every hill. 
_ Mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from Me, 
Neither is their dwelling-place hid from Mine eyes. 
And first I will repay double their iniquity and their sin; 
Because they have defiled My land, they have filled My heritage 
With the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things. 
(Ch. xvi, 16-18) 


O Yahweh, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of 
[affliction! 
The nations shall come to Thee from the ends of the earth, 
And say: Surely, our fathers have inherited lies, 
And vanities wherein is no profit. 
Shall a man make gods for himself 
Which yet are no gods? 
(Ch. xvi, 19-20) 


The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, 
With the point of a diamond. 
It is graven upon the tablet of their heart, 
Upon the horns of their altars; 
Upon every green tree, upon the high hills, 
And upon the mountains in the field. 
Thy wealth, all thy treasures, will I give as a spoil, 
Thy high places of sin throughout all thy borders. 
And thou shalt loosen thy hand from the possessions 
That I gave thee; 
And I will cause thee to serve thine enemies 
In the land thou knowest not 
For ye have kindled a fire in Mine anger 
That shall burn forever. 
(Ch. xvii, 1-4) 


——_ 


Thus saith Yahweh: 
Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, 
And maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Yahweh! 
For he shall be like heath in the desert, and shall not see 
When good cometh; 
He shall dwell in the parched places in the wilderness, 
A salt land, and not inhabited. 


Blessed is the man that trusteth in Yahweh, whose hope is Yahweh; 
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, 

That spreadeth out her roots to the river; 

It shall not fear when heat cometh, 

For her leaf shall be green; 

In the year of drought she shall not pine, 

Nor cease from bearing fruit. 

(xvii, 5-8) 


The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. 
Who can know it? 
I, Yahweh, search the heart, probing the inward parts, 
That I may pay every man according to his ways, 
According to the fruit of his doings. 


370 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


As the partridge sitteth on eggs that she hath not laid, 
So is he that getteth riches, but not with justice. 
In the midst of his days they shall leave him, 
And at his end, he shall be a fool. 
(xvii, 9-41) 


A glorious exalted throne is the place 
f our sanctuary. 
O Hope of Israel, Yahweh! all that forsake Thee 
Shall be ashamed. 


They that depart from Me 
Shall be written in the earth, 
Because they have forsaken Yahweh, 
The fountain of living waters. 
(xvil, 12-43) 


Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be 
saved; for Thou art my praise. Behold, they say unto me: Where is 
the promise of Yahweh? Let it come now. As for me, I have not fled 
from a shepherd’s tent to follow Thee; neither have I desired the woeful 
day. Thou knowest. What hath come forth from my lips hath been 
righteous before Thee. Let them be confounded that persecute me, 
but let not me be confounded. Let them be dismayed, but let not us 
be dismayed; bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with 
a double destruction. 

(xvii, 14-18) 


Yahweh Sabaoth, that triest the righteous, 
And seest the reins and the heart, 
Let me see Thy vengeance upon them, 
For unto Thee have I opened my cause. 


(Gh xx ie 
Sing unto Yahweh! Praise ye Yahweh! 
For He hath delivered the soul of the poor 
From the hand of evil-doers! 
(xx, 43) 


Cursed be the day wherein I was born 
Let not the day be blessed that my mother brought me forth! 
Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, 
Saying: A man-child is born to thee,—making him very glad. 
And let that man be as the cities 
Which Yahweh overthrew and hath not repented, 
And let him hear a cry in the morn 
And an alarum at noon-tide; 
Because He slew me not from the womb, 
Or that my mother might have been my grave. 


Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow? 
And that my days should be consumed with shame. 
(xx, 13-18) 


N. B. A study of this collection of incongruous passages, and especially of chapters 
xvi and xvii, wherein laments and rejoicings, prayer, praise and proverbs are jumbled 
together, with their several causes far to seek, is coryincing for the necessity of drastic 
revision. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH , 371 


THE SECOND BOOKLET 
THE WorRDS OF JEREMIAH DURING THE REIGN OF JEHOIAKIM 
MURR Lele eee anle Oa O dae Xe KVILT toes XIV, 4-07 XIV, 3-12; xxi, 
3-23 eax, 1-2, 9-18, 21-29" xxl.) 24-303) xxiv; -1-16.) 

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoikim the son of Josiah, king 
of Judah, came this word from Yahweh, saying: Thus saith Yahweh: 
Stand in the court of the house of Yahweh and speak unto all the 
cities of Judah which come to worship in the house of Yahweh all the 
words that I command thee to speak to them; diminish not a word. 
It may be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way, 
that I may repent Me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them, 
because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, 
Thus saith Yahweh: If ye will not hearken to Me to walk in My law 
which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of My servants 
the prophets whom I send unto you, even sending them betimes and 
often but ye have not hearkened; then will I make this house like 
Shiloh, and this city will I make a curse to all the nations of the earth. 

Now the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah 
speaking these words in the house of Yahweh. And it came to pass 
when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Yahweh had 
commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and 
the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying: Thou 
shalt surely die; why hast thou prophesied in the name of Yahweh, 
saying: This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, 
without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered together 
against Jeremiah in the House of Yahweh. 

When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from 
the king’s house to the House of Yahweh; and they sat in the entrance 
of the new gate of the House of Yahweh. Then spake the priests 
-_ and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying: This 
man is worthy of death, for he hath prophesied against this city, as 
ye have heard with your own ears. Then spake Jeremiah unto all the 
princes and to all the people, saying: Yahweh sent me to prophesy 
against this house and against this city all the words that ye have 
heard. Therefore now, amend your ways and your doings and hearken 
unto Yahweh, your God, and Yahweh will repent Him of the evil that 
He hath pronounced against you. But as for me, I am in your hand; 
do with me as is good and right in your eyes. Only, know ye for 
certain that, if ye put me to death, ye will bring innocent blood upon 
yourselves and upon this city and upon the inhabitants thereof; for 
of a truth, Yahweh hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in 
your ears. Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests 
and to the prophets: This man is not worthy of death, for he has 
spoken to us in the name of Yahweh our God. 

Then rose up certain of the elders of the land and spake to all the 
assembly of the people, saying: Micah the Morasthite prophesied in 
the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying: 


Zion shall be ploughed as a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps; 

The hill of the Temple shall be as the high places of a forest. 

Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah put him to death? Did 
he not fear Yahweh and entreat the favor of Yahweh? And Yahweh 
repented Him of the evil which He had pronounced against them. 
Thus might we procure great evil upon our own souls. Now there 
was another man that prophesied in the name of Yahweh,—Uriah the 


372 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this 
city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah; and 
when the king and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to 
put him to death. But when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and fled, 
and went into Egypt. But Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, 
Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain men with him; and they 
fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to Jehoiakim the 
king, who slew him with the edge of the sword, and cast his dead 
body into the graves of the common people. But the hand of Ahikam 
the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that they did not give him 
into the hand of the people to put him to death. 

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah 
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, 
(which was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon) which 
Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah and to all 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: From the thirteenth year of 
Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day, these three 
and twenty years, the word of Yahweh hath come unto me and I have 
spoken unto you, speaking betimes and often; but ye have not heark- 
ened. And Yahweh hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, 
sending them betimes and often, (but ye have not hearkened neither 
inclined your ears to hear), saying: Return ye now, every one from 
his evil way, from the evil of his doings, and dwell in the land that 
Yahweh hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever; 
go not after other gods to serve them and to worship them; and 
provoke Me not with the work of your own hands; then will I do you 
no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto Me, saith Yahweh, but have 
provoked Me with the work of your own hands to your hurt. There- 
fore thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth: Because ye have not obeyed My 
words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the earth, 
saith Yahweh, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, 
My instrument, and will bring them against this land, and against all 
the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; 
and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment and 
a hissing and perpetual desolations. Moreover, I will cause to cease 
from among them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the 
voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the 
millstones and the light of the lamp. And the whole land shall be a 
desolation and a waste. 

For thus saith unto me Yahweh, the God of Israel: Take the cup 
of the wine of this fury from My hand, and cause all the nations to 
whom I send thee to drink it; and they shall drink, and reel to and 
fro, and be like unto madmen, because of the sword that I am sending 
among you. Then I took the cup from the hand of Yahweh, and I 
caused all the nations to whom Yahweh had sent me to drink; Jeru- 
salem and the cities of Judah, the kings thereof and the princes thereof; 
Pharoah, king of Egypt, his servants and princes, and all his people, 
and all the foreign peoples; and all the kings of the land of Uz, and 
all the kings of the land of the Philistines, of Askelon and Gaza, Ekron 
and all the remnant of Ashdod, Edom and Moab and the Ammonites and 
all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon; and the kings of the 
isle which is beyond the sea, Deden and Tema and Buz,—all of those 
that have the corners of their hair shorn, and all the kings of the min- 
gled peoples that live in the desert. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 373 


Thus said Yahweh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and 
speak there this word, and say: Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of 
Judah, that sitteth upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, 
and thy people that enter in by these gates. Thus saith Yahweh: 
Execute ye justice and righteousness, and deliver the oppressed out 
of the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong; do no violence to the 
stranger, the fatherless nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood 
in this place. For, if ye do this wrong indeed, then shall there enter 
in by the gates of this house kings to sit upon the throne of David, 
riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. 
But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, saith Yahweh, 
that this house shall become a desolation. For thus saith Yahweh 
concerning the house of the king of Judah: 


Thou art Gilead unto Me, the head of Lebanon; 
Yet surely I will make thee a desert, like uninhabited cities. 
I will bring destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons; 
Thy choice cedars shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. 


And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say, every 
man to his neighbor: Wherefore hath Yahweh done thus unto this 
great city? Then they shall answer: Because they forsook the cove- 
nant of Yahweh, their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them. 


A LAMENT FOR THE DISCROWNED KING? 


Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; 
But weep sore for him that goeth away, 
For he shall return no more, 
Nor see his native land. 


For thus saith Yahweh touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king 
of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth 
out of this place: 


He shall return hither no more, but shall die in the place 
Whither they have led him captive, 
And shall see this land no more. 


How THE SCROLL OF JEREMIAH’S SERMONS CAME TO BE BURNED 
(GD? XXXVI) 


It came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, 
king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from Yahweh, say- 
ing: Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that 
I have spoken to thee against Israel and against Judah and against all 
the nations, from the day that I spake unto thee in the days of Josiah 
even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will listen 


1Shallum, who is also called Jehoahaz, and who succeeded Josiah after the battle of 
Megiddo in 608 B.c. whereby Judah became subject to Egypt, reigned but three months, 
was then deposed by Necho and taken to Egypt. His brother Eliakim was put on the 
throne, and his name changed to Jehoiakim. The touching little elegy in v. 10, enforces 
through this recent event the warnings of the preceding section. 

2 This chapter, probably an excerpt from a Biography of the prophet, does not belong 
to the Second Booklet; but from its superscription it must come before the great deliver- 
ance from the rule of Egypt; after which the current of events runs steadily on to 
the Babylonian Captivity. It is therefore inserted here by the editor. 


374 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


to all the evil which I purpose to do unto them, and return every man 
from his evil way; and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. 

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote 
from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh which He had 
spoken unto him upon a roll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded 
Baruch, saying: I am prevented; I cannot go into the House of Yahweh; 
therefore go thou and read from the roll which thou hast written from 
my mouth the words of Yahweh in the ears of the people in the House 
of Yahweh upon a fast-day; and also thou shalt read them in the ears 
of all the people of Judah that come out of their cities. It may be 
that they will present their supplication before Yahweh, and will 
return every man from his evil way; for great is the anger and the 
fury that Yahweh hath pronounced against this people. And Baruch 
the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah commanded him, 
reading from the book the words of Yahweh in Yahweh’s House. 

Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, 
king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before 
Yahweh, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people that came from 
the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem. Then did Baruch read from the 
book the words of Jeremiah in the House of Yahweh, in the chamber 
of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the 
entrance of the new gate of the House of Yahweh, in the ears of all 
the people. And when Micaiah the son of Gemariah the son of Shaphan 
had heard the words of Yahweh, he went down into the king’s house, 
into the scribe’s chamber; and lo, all the princes were sitting there, 
Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son 
of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan and Zedekiah the son of 
Hananiah, and all the princes. Then Micaiah declared unto them all 
the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears 
of all the people. Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of 
Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying: 
Take in thy hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the 
people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his 
hand and came unto them. And they said unto him: Sit down now 
and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears. Now it came 
to pass, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one 
toward another, and said unto Baruch: We will surely tell the king 
of these words. And they asked Baruch, saying: Tell us now; how 
didst thou write all these words at his mouth? Then Baruch answered 
them: He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and 
I wrote them with ink in the book. Then said the princes to Baruch: 
Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye are. 
And they went in unto the king in the court; (but they had deposited 
the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe) and they told all the 
words in the ear of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the 
roll; and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And 
Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and of all the princes that stood 
beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter-house in the 
ninth month; and the brazier was burning before him. And it came 
to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that he [the 
king] cut it with a paper-knife, and cast it into the fire that was in 
the brazier, until all the roll was consumed. Yet they were not afraid, 
nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants that 
heard all these words. Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah had entreated 
the king not to burn the roll; but he would not listen to them. And the 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 375 


king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah the son of 
Azriel and Shelemaiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and 
Jeremiah the prophet; but Yahweh hid them. 

Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, after that the king 
had burned the roll and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth 
of Jeremiah, saying: Take thee again another roll, and write in it 
all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim, the 
king of Judah, hath burned. And concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah, 
thou shait say: Thus saith Yahweh: Thou hast burned the roll, say- 
ing: Why hast thou written therein saying: The king of Babylon 
shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease 
from it man and beast? Therefore thus saith Yahweh concerning 
Jehoiakim, king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne 
of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, 
and in the night to the frost. And I will visit upon him and his seed 
and his servants their iniquity; and I will bring upon them and upon 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the evil 
that I have pronounced against them, and they hearkened not. 

Then Jeremiah took another roll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, 
the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah 
all the words of the book which Jehoiakim the king of Judah had 
burned in the fire; and there were added besides unto them many like 
words. 


The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch, the son 
of Neriah, when he wrote the words in a book at the mouth of 
Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of 
Judah, saying: Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning thee, 
O Baruch. Thou didst say: 


Woe is me now, for Yahweh hath added sorrow to my pain! 
I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest. 


Thus shalt thou say unto him, saith Yahweh: 
Behold, that which I have built will I break down, 
And that which I have planted will I pluck up. 
And this is the whole land. 
And seekest thou great things for thyself? 
Seek thou not! 


For behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith Yahweh; but thy 
life will I give thee for booty in all places whithersoever thou goest. 


A SonG oF TRIUMPH FOR THE DEFEAT OF PHARAOH NECHO 
AT THE BATTLE OF CARCHEMISH, B.C. 605 


Make ready buckler and shield and draw near to battle! 
Harness the horses and mount, ye horsemen, 
And stand forth with your helmets! ' 
Furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail. 
Why do I see them dismayed and turned backward? 


Their mighty ones are beaten down; they flee apace 
And look not back. 
Terror is on every side, saith Yahweh. | 
The swift cannot flee away, nor the mighty warrior escape. 
In the north by the River Euphrates 
Have they stumbled and fallen. 


376 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Who is this that riseth up like the Nile, 

Whose waves toss themselves like the River?’ 
Saying: I will rise up, I will cover the earth; 

I will destroy all its inhabitants? 

Prance, ye horses, rush madly, ye chariots! 

Let the mighty warriors go forth! 

Cush and Put, that handle the shield, 

And the Ludim that bend the bow! 


But that day is Yahweh’s Day of Vengeance, 
That He may avenge Him of His adversaries. 
The sword shall devour and be satiate, 
And shall drink its fill of their blood. 
For Yahweh Sabaoth hath a sacrifice in the Northland 
By the River Euphrates. 


Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! 
In vain wilt thou use many medicines; 
There is no cure for thee! 
The nations have heard of thy shame, 
The earth is full of thy cry; 
For hero hath stumbled against hero; 
And both are fallen together.* 


THE Fast-APPROACHING DOOM OF JEHOIAKIM 


Woe to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, 
And his chambers by injustice! 
Using his neighbors’ service without wages, 
Giving him not his hire! 
That saith: I will build me a vast house 
With spacious chambers and many windows; 
And it is ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion. 
Shalt thou reign because thou dost strive to excel in cedar? 
Did not thy father eat and drink 
And execute law with justice? 
He judged the cause of the poor and needy 
And that: was well. 
Is not this to know Me? saith Yahweh. 


But thine eyes and thine heart are bent on dishonest gain, 

On the shedding of innocent blood, on oppression and violence. 

Therefore thus saith Yahweh, concerning Jehoiakim, 

The son of Josiah, king of Judah: 
They shall not lament for him, Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister! 
They shall not lament for him, Alas, my lord! or Alas, my glory! 
He shall be buried as an ass is buried, drawn and cast forth 
Beyond the city-gates. 


Go up to Lebanon and cry aloud! Lift up thy voice in Bashan! 
And cry out from Mount Abarim! 
For all that ioved thee are destroyed. 
In thy prosperity, I spake unto thee; but thou saidst: 
I will not hear. 

This hath been thy way from thy youth 

That thou hearkenedst not to My voice. 

The wind shail feed upon thy shepherds, 

Thy lovers shall go into captivity. 


+The authorship of this ode is warmly disputed; but many authorities find in it 
special marks of Jeremiah’s style. } 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 377 


Surely then shalt thou be ashamed, 
And confounded for all thy wickedness. 
O inhabitant of Lebanon, thou that art nestled in the cedars, 
How wilt thou groan 
When pangs come upon thee, as of a woman in travail! 


CONCERNING THE PROPHETS 


Woe to the Shepherds that scatter and destroy 
The sheep of My pasture! 
Thus saith Yahweh against the men that feed My people, Israel: 
Ye have scattered My flock and driven them away; 
Ye have taken no care of them. 
Behold, I will have a care of you; I will visit on you your deeds. 


(My heart within me is‘broken all my bones do shake. 
I am like a drunken man whom wine hath overcome, 
Because of Yahweh and because of His holy commands. 
For the land is full of adulterers, 
Their course is evil, their force not right. 
For both prophet and priest are ungodly, ) 
Yea, in My House have I found their wickedness. 
Therefore their way shall be unto them 
Like slippery paths in the darkness. 
They shall be thrust down and fall therein 
For I will bring evil upon them in the time of their visitation, 
[saith Yahweh. 


In the prophets of Samaria have I seen wickedness 
They prophesied by Baal, they caused My people to err; 
But in the prophets of Jerusalem have I seen a horrible thing. 
They commit adultery and walk in lies 
And they strengthen the hands of evil-doers. 
They are all to Me like Sodom, its inhabitants like Gomorrah. 


Therefore thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth concerning the Prophets: 
Behold, I will feed them with wormwood 
And make them drink water of gall 
For from the prophets of Jerusalem is gone forth 
Ungodliness in the land. 


Hearken not to the prophets that feed you with vain hopes, that 
speak the desires of their own hearts and not out of the mouth of 
Yahweh; that say continually to them that despise Me: Thus saith 
Yahweh, ye shall have peace;—and to him that walketh in his self- 
will: No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the council 
of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear His word? Who hath 
hearkened to His word and obeyed it? 


I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran; 
I have not spoken unto them, yet they have prophesied. 
If they had stood in My council, they had caused My people 
To hear My words: 
They had turned them from their evil way, 
And from their evil-doing. 
Am I a God near at hand, saith Yahweh, and not far-off? 
Can a man hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? 
Do not I fill both heaven and earth? saith Yahweh. 


378 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


I have heard what the prophets say that prophesy lies in My name, 
Saying: I have dreamed, I have dreamed! 
How long shall this be? 
Is My word in the hearts of prophets that prophesy lies? 
That prophesy the deceit of their heart, 
Thinking to cause My people to forget My name, 
By the dreams they tell every man to his neighbor, 
As their father forgot My name for Baal. 


The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell his dream; 
And let him speak My word faithfully that hath My word. 
What hath the straw to do with the wheat? saith Yahweh, 
Is not My word like a fire, 
Like a hammer that shatters the rocks? 


THE DooM OF JEHOIACHIN (CONIAH) 
WHO SUCCEEDED JEHOIAKIM, AND REIGNED THREE MONTHS 


As I live, saith Yahweh, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, 
king of Judah, were the signet upon My right hand, yet would I pluck 
him thence. And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy 
life, and into the hand of them of whom thou art afraid, even into 
the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of 
the Chaldwans. And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare 
thee, into another country in which ye were not born, and there shail 


ye die. But to the land whereunto they long to return, thither shall 
they not return. 


Is this man Coniah a despised, broken image? 
Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? 
Wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, 

And are cast into the land which they. know not? 
O land, land, land! hear the word of Yahweh? 

Thus saith Yahweh: Write this man childless; 
A man that shall not prosper in his days. 

For no man of his seed shall prosper 
Sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more 
In Judah. 


After Nebuchadrezzer, king of Babylon, had carried away captive 
Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah 
with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them 
to Babylon, Yahweh showed me two baskets of figs, set before the 
temple of Yahweh. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that 
are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not 
be eaten, they were so bad. Then Yahweh said unto me: What seest 
thou, Jeremiah? And I said: Figs; the good figs, very good; and the 
bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. Thereupon the 
word of Yahweh came unto me, saying: 

Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so 
will I regard for good the captives of Judah whom I have sent out of 
this place into the land of the Chaldwans. And I will keep Mine eyes 
upon them, and I will bring them back to this land; and I will build 
them up and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 379 


them up; and I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am Yahweh; 
and they shall be My people, when they shall return unto Me with 
their whole heart, and I will be their God. But as for the bad figs 
that cannot be eaten, they are so bad—surely thus saith Yahweh: So 
will I make Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his princes, and the 
residue of Jerusalem that remain in this land, and them that dwell in 
the land of Egypt,—I will even make them a horror among all the 
nations of the earth, and they shall be a reproach and a proverb, a 
taunt and a curse in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will 
send the sword, the famine and the pestilence among them, till they be 
consumed from off the face of the land that I gave to their fathers. 


THE THIRD BOOKLET 
WHIcH BEGINS WITH THE ACCESSION OF ZEDEKIAH, (597 B.C.)? 
(GHAXXVIE I-22 xxviii, 4-1731xxix, 1-32) 


In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, came this word unto me 
from Yahweh, saying: Make thee bands and bars and put them upon 
thy neck, and send to the kings of Edom, of Moab, of the Ammonites, 
of Tyre and of Sidon, by the messengers that have come to Zedekiah, 
king of Judah, and give them a charge to their masters, saying: Thus 
saith the militant God Yahweh, the God of Israel: Thus shall ye say 
to your masters: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that 
are upon the face of the earth by My great power and by Mine out- 
stretched arm; and I give it unto whom it seemeth right to Me. And 
now I have given the earth unto Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, My 
servant, and the beasts of the field to serve him; and the people and 
the kingdom which will not serve this same Nebuchadrezzar, king of 
Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king 
of Babylon, will I punish, saith Yahweh, with the sword and with 
famine and with pestilence until I have consumed them by his hand. 

But as for you, hearken not to your prophets nor to your diviners 
nor to your dreamers nor to your soothsayers and sorcerers, who say: 
Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon! For they prophecy a lie to you 
to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, 
and ye should perish. But the nation that shall bring its neck under 
the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, that nation will I leave 
in their own land, saith Yahweh, and they shall till it and dwell therein. 

And to Zedekiah, king of Judah, spake I the same words, saying: 
Bring your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve 
him and his people and live. Why will ye die, thou and thy people, 
by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, as Yahweh hath spoken 
concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? Hearken 
not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying: Ye 
shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie unto you. 
For I have not sent them, saith Yahweh; they are prophesying falsely 
in My name, that they may drive you out and that ye may perish, ye, 
and the prophets that prophesy unto you. 

Also, I spake to the priests and to all the people, saying: Thus 
saith Yahweh: hearken not to the words of your prophets that say: 

1In A. V. as also in the Heb. the booklet opens “In the beginning of the reign of 
Jehoiakim”; but that this is a scribal error is immediately evident, for Zedekiah is the 
only king of Judah mentioned throughout. He, also, was a son of Josiah. The three 


chapters of this little booklet have noteworthy peculiarities found nowhere else in the 
whole book; among others, the fact that Jeremiah speaks directly in the first person. 


380 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Behold, the vessels of Yahweh’s House shall now shortly be brought 
back from Babylon; for they prophesy a lie upon you. Hearken not 
unto them; serve the king of Babylon and live; why should the city 
become desolate? But if these be prophets, and if the word of Yahweh 
be with them, let them now make intercession with Yahweh the militant, 
that the vessels that are left in the House of Yahweh and in the house 
of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon. For thus 
saith Yahweh Sabaoth concerning the pillars and the sea and the 
bases and the residue of the vessels that remain in the city, which 
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, took not when he carried away captive 
Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, 
and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem; yea, thus saith Yahweh 
Sabaoth, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the 
House of Yahweh and in the house of the king of Judah, and at 
Jerusalem: They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be 
until the day that I remember them, and bring them up and restore 
them to this place. 


And it came to pass the same year in the beginning of the reign of 
Zedekiah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, son of 
Azzur, the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the House of 
Yahweh, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying: 
Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel; I have broken the yoke of 
the king of Babylon. Within two full years I will bring back into this 
place all the vessels of the House of Yahweh that Nebuchadrezzar, king 
of Babylon, took away from this place and carried them to Babylon. And 
I will bring back to this place Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of 
Judah, with all the captives of Judah that went into Babylon, saith 
Yahweh, for I will break the yoke of the King of Babylon. Then the 
prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the 
priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the House of 
Yahweh: Amen! May Yahweh do so; May Yahweh perform thy words 
which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of Yahweh’s 
House and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place. 
Nevertheless, hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and 
in the ears of all the people: The prophets that have been before me 
and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries and 
against great kingdoms, of war and of evil, and of pestilence. The . 
prophet that prophesieth of peace, when the word of that prophet shall 
come to pass it shall be known that Yahweh hath truly sent him. 

Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the neck of the 
prophet Jeremiah, and brake it. And Hananiah spake in the presence 
of all the people, saying: Thus saith Yahweh: Even so will I break 
the yoke of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, from the neck of all 
nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah 
went his way. 

Then the word of Yahweh came unto Jeremiah after that Hananiah 
the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet 
Jeremiah, saying: Go, and tell Hananiah, saying: Thus saith Yahweh: 
Thou hast broken the yokes of wood, but thou shalt make instead of 
them yokes of iron. For thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of 
Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, 
that EN may serve Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon; and they shall 
serve him. i 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 381 


Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet: Hear 
now, Hananiah; Yahweh hath not sent thee, but thou makest this people 
to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith Yahweh: Behold, I will cast 
thee from off the face of the earth. This year thou shalt die, because 
thou hast taught rebellion against Yahweh. So Hananiah the prophet 
died the same year, in the seventh month. 

These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent 
from Jerusalem unto the elders of the captives, whom Nebuchadrezzar 
had carried away captive, by the hand of Eleazar the son of Shaphan 
and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to 
the king of Babylon. | 

Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, unto all whom I 
have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon: Build 
ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of 
them; take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for 
your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that ye may be in- 
creased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city 
whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto 
Yahweh for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. 

For thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth: Let not your prophets and your 
diviners in the midst of you deceive you, neither heed the dreams which 
they dream. For they prophesy falsely unto you in My name. I have 
not sent them. 

For thus saith Yahweh: After seventy years be accomplished at 
Babylon, I will visit you, and perform My good word toward you, in 
causing you to return to this place. For I know My thoughts toward 
you, saith Yahweh, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a 
hoped-for end. Call upon Me and pray unto Me, and I will hearken 
unto you. And when ye shall seek for Me and search for Me with all 
your heart, ye shall find Me. 

Because ye have said: Yahweh hath raised up prophets for us in 
Babylon, thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and 
of Zedekiah son of Maaseiah: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand 
of the king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your eyes. And of 
them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are 
in Babylon, thus: May Yahweh make thee like Zedekiah and like 
Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire; because they have 
wrought villainy in Israel and have committed adultery with their neigh- 
bors’ wives, and have spoken in My name that which I have not com- 
manded them; verily, I know, and am the witness, saith Yahweh. Thou 
shalt also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelemite, saying: 

Because this one wrote to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, 
saying: Yahweh hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the 
priest, that thou shouldest be overseer in the House of Yahweh over 
every madman who pretendeth to be a prophet, that thou shouldst put 
him in the stocks and in the collar; now therefore, why hast thou not re- 
proved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which pretendeth to be a prophet to you? 
For he sent to us in Babylon, saying: This captivity will be long; build 
ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of 
them. And Zedekiah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah 
the prophet. 

Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying: Send to all 
them of the captivity, saying: Thus saith Yahweh concerning Shemaiah 
the Nehelemite: Because Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, but I 
sent him not, and he hath caused you to trust in a lie; therefore thus 


382 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


saith Yahweh: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelemite and his 
seed; he shall not have one to dwell among you who shall see the good 
that I will do for My people, saith Yahweh; because he hath spoken 
perversely against Yahweh. 


THE FourRTH BOOKLET 


THE COUNSELS AND WARNINGS OF JEREMIAH BEFORE THE DESTRUCTION OF 
JERUSALEM AND THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH (B.C. 586) 


(Ch. xxxvii, 1-8, 5-40; xxi, 3-10; xxxvii, 11-22, 4; xxxviii, 1-13, 28; 
xxxiv, 1-22; xxxii, 1a, 2a, 6-15; xxxix, fa, 3, 14-18) 


Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king instead of Coniah the 
son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon made king 
in the land of Judah. But neither he nor his servants nor the people of 
the land hearkened unto the words of Yahweh, which He spake by the 
prophet Jeremiah. 

And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and 
Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, say- 
ing : Pray now unto Yahweh, our God, for me. Now Jeremiah came 
in and went out among the people; for they had not yet put him in 
prison. And Pharaoh’s army was come forth out of Egypt; and when 
the Chaldeans that were besieging Jerusalem heard tidings of them, 
they broke up from before Jerusalem. Then came the word of Yahweh 
unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying: Thus saith the God of Israel, 
Yahweh: Thus shalt thou say unto the king of Judah that sent thee 
unto Me to inquire of Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army which is come 
forth to help you shall return to Egypt, to their own land. And the 
Chaldgwans shall return and fight against this city; and they shall take 
it and burn it with fire. Thus saith Yahweh: Deceive not yourselves, 
saying: ‘The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us; they shall not | 
depart. For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans 
that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among 
them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city 
with fire. 

Then said Jeremiah unto them: Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: 
Thus saith Yahweh the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the 
weapons of war that are in your hands wherewith ye fight against the 
king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the 
walls, and I will gather them into the midst of this city. And I Myself 
will fight against you with an outstretched arm and with a strong hand, 
even in anger and in fury, and in great wrath. And I will smite the 
inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great 
pestilence. And afterward, saith Yahweh, I will deliver Zedekiah, king 
of Judah, and his servants and the people and such as are left in this 
city from the pestilence, from the sword and from the famine, into the 
hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of their 
enemies, of those that seek their life; and he shall smite them with the 
edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have 
mercy. 

And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith Yahweh: Behold, 
I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He that abideth 
in the city shall die by the sword and by the famine and by the pesti- 
lence; but he that goeth out and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege 
you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. For I 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 383 


have set My face against this city for evil and not for good, saith 
Yahweh; it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he 
shall burn it with fire. ; 


Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, 
Rock of the plain! 
Ye that say: Who can come against us? 
Who can enter our strongholds? 
I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, saith Yahweh. 
I will kindle a fire in her forest that shall consume 
Alll that is round about her. 


And it came to pass that, when the army of the Chaldzans was 
broken up for fear of Pharoah’s army, that Jeremiah went forth out of 
Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to receive his portion there 
in the midst of his people. And when he was in the Gate of Benjamin, 
a captain of the ward, whose name was Irijah, took Jeremiah the 
prophet, saying: Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans. Then said 
Jeremiah: It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldzans. But he 
hearkened not to him; so Irijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the 
princes. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah and smote 
him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for 
they had made that the prison. 

When Jeremiah was come into the dungeon-house and into the cells, 
and had remained there many days, Zedekiah the king sent and took him 
out; and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said: Is there 
any word from Yahweh? And Jeremiah said: There is; for, said 
He, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. More- 
over Jeremiah said unto King Zedekiah, What have I done against thee, 
or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me 
in prison? Where now are your prophets that prophesied unto you, 
saying: The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against 
this land? And now, hear, I pray thee, O my lord the king; let my 
supplication, I pray thee, be presented before thee, that thou cause me 
not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there. 

Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah 
to the court of the guard; and they gave him daily a loaf of bread out 
of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus 
Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard, and went in and out among 
the people, for they had not put him in durance. 

Now Shephatieth the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, 
and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard 
the words that Jeremiah spake unto all the people, saying: Thus saith 
Yahweh: He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the 
famine and by the pestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans 
shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. Thus saith Yahweh: 
This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and 
he shall take it. Then the princes said unto the king: Let this man, 
we pray thee, be put to death; forasmuch as he weakeneth the hands 
of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the 
people in speaking such words as these. For this man seeketh not 
the welfare of this people, but the hurt. Then said Zedekiah the king: 
Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do anything 
against you. Then took they Jeremiah and cast him into the pit of 
Malchiah, the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard; and they let 
him down with cords. And in the pit there was no water, but mire; 
and Jeremiah sank in the mire. 


384 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an officer who was in the 
king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the pit, (the king 
then sitting in the Gate of Benjamin) Ebed-melech went forth out of 
the king’s house and spake to the king, saying: My lord the king, these 
men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, 
whom they have cast into the pit; and he is like to die in the place where 
he is on account of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city. 
Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying: Take 
from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet 
out of the pit before he die. So Ebed-melech took the men with him, 
and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence 
worn clouts and rags, and let them down by cords into the pit to Jere- 
miah. And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah: Put now 
these old worn-out clouts and rags under thine armpits under the cords. 
And Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah by the cords, and took 
him out of the pit; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard, and 
abode in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.’ 

The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when Nebuchad- 
rezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army and all the kingdoms of the 
land of his dominion and all the peoples, fought against Jerusalem and 
against all the cities of Judah. 

Thus saith Yahweh: Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: 
Thus saith Yahweh: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the 
king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire; and thou shalt not escape 
out of his hand. And thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of 
Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt 
go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of Yahweh, O Zedekiah, king of 
Judah; thus saith Yahweh concerning thee: Thou shalt not die by the 
sword, thou shalt die in peace; and like the burnings of thy fathers, 
the kings that were before thee, so shall they make a burning for thee; 
and they shall lament thee,—Ah, lord! for I have spoken the word, saith 
Yahweh. 

Thus Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah, 
king of Judah, while the king of Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem 
and all the cities of Judah that were left, Lachish and Azekah; for these 
alone remained of the fortified cities of Judah. 

The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after the king 
Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem 
to proclaim unto them a liberation: that every man should let his man- 
servant and his maid-servant go free, if they were Hebrews; that none 
should make bondmen of them, being Judeeans, his brethren; and all 
the princes and all the people hearkened, and entered into the covenant 
and let them go free. But afterwards they turned and caused the 
servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and 
brought them into subjection again. Therefore the word of Yahweh 
came to Jeremiah, saying: 

Thus saith Yahweh the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your 
fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, 
out of the house of bondage, saying: At the end of seven years ye 
shall let go every man that is Hebrew that hath been sold unto thee 
and hath served thee six years; thou shalt let him go free; but your 
fathers hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear. But ye had 

1Verses 14-27 are a later and inaccurate version of the secret interview between 
Jeremiah and the king, already given in Ch. xxxvii. It gives the impression of two such 
interviews, where a closer study shows that there was but one. It is an excellent 


illustration of the difficulty of reconciling the accounts in the several booklets which 
has not yet been entirely overcome. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 385 


now turned and had done that which is right in Mine eyes, in proclaim- 
ing liberty every man to his neighbor; and ye had made a covenant be- 
fore Me in the house which is called by My name. Now ye have turned 
and profaned My name, and caused, every man of you, his servant and 
his handmaid whom ye had let go free at his pleasure, to return and 
be in subjection again. Therefore thus saith Yahweh: Ye have not 
hearkened unto Me to proclaim freedom every man to his brother, and 
every man to his neighbor;—now I proclaim for you freedom, saith 
Yahweh, to become the prey of the sword and of famine and of the 
pestilence; and I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 
And I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, that have 
not performed the words of the covenant they made before Me,— 
when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,— 
the princes of Judah and the rulers of Jerusalem, the officers and the 
priests and all the people; I will even give them into the hand of their 
enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and their dead 
bodies shall be for food unto the fowls of heaven, and to the beasts 
of the earth. And Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes will I give 
into the hand of their enemies, even into the hand of the king of 
Babylon’s army, which has gone away from you. Behold, I will com- 
mand, saith Yahweh, and cause them to return to this city, and they shall 
fight against it and take it, and burn it with fire; and I will make the 
cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. 

A word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, while the king of Babylon 
was besieging Jerusalem. And Jeremiah said, The word of Yahweh 
came unto me, saying: Behold, Hanamel, the son of Shallum thine 
uncle, shall come unto thee, saying: Buy my field that is in Anathoth, 
for the right of redemption to buy it is thine. So Hanamel, mine uncle’s 
son, came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of 
Yahweh, and said unto me: Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in 
Anathoth in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is thine, 
and the redemption is thine. Buy it for thyself. Then I knew that it 
was the word of Yahweh. And I bought the field that was in Anathoth 
of mine uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels 
of silver. And I signed the deed and sealed it and called witnesses, and 
weighed him the money in the balances. Then I took the deed of the 
purchase, both that which was sealed containing the terms and condi- 
tions, and that which was open; and I delivered the deed of the purchase 
unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the presence 
of Hanamel mine uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses that 
subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Judzeans that sat in 
the court of the guard. And I charged Baruch before them, saying: 
Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this deed of 
purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open; and put them 
in an earthen vessel, that they may remain many days. For thus saith 
Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards 
shall yet again be bought in this land. 

And it came to pass, when Jerusalem was taken, that all the princes 
of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the middle gate,—Nergal- 
sharezer, Nebushazban, and all the rest of the princes of the king of 
Babylon. And they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the 
guard, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam son of 
Shaphan, that he should carry him home. So he dwelt among the 
people. 

Now the word of Yahweh had come unto Jeremiah, while he was 
shut up in the court of the guard, saying: Go and speak to Ebed-melech 


386 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


the Ethiopian, saying: Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: 
Behold, I will bring to pass My words for evil upon this city, and not for 
good; and they shall be accomplished before thee in that day. But 
I will deliver thee in that day, saith Yahweh, and thou shalt not be 
given into the hands of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will 
surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword; but thy life 
shall be for a prey unto thee, because thou hast put thy trust in Yahweh. 


THE FIFTH BOOKLET 


EVENTS IN JUDAH AFTER ITS CONQUEST, AND THE PART TAKEN BY 
JEREMIAH IN THE DISSENSIONS OF THE PEOPLE (584 B.C.) 


(Oh xxxix, 4b; 2.54-12> x194-16 5°11) e185 xiii 492 ex ee 


In the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the tenth month, 
came Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army against Jeru- 
salem and beseiged it; in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth 
month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city wall. 
And when Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and all the men of war saw it, 
they fled and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the king’s 
garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls; and he went out toward the 
Arabah. But the army of the Chaldgeans pursued after them and over- 
took Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and when they had taken him, 
they brought him up to Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, to Riblah in 
the land of Hamath, and he passed judgment upon him. Then the king 
of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes; also he 
slew all the nobles of Judah. Moreover he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, 
and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon. And the Chaldeans 
burned the king’s house and the houses of the people with fire, and 
broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 

Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive to 
Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, the de- 
serters also that fell away to him; but Nebuzaradan left the poor of the 
people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards 
and fields in that day. 

Now Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, gave charge concerning Jere- 
miah to Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying: Take him, 
and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he 
shall say unto thee. 


The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after that Nebu- 
zaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, whither 
he had taken him bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem 
and Judah that were being carried away captive unto Babylon. And 
the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him: Yahweh 
thy God pronounced this evil upon this place and Yahweh hath brought 
it and done according as He spake; because ye have sinned against 
Yahweh, and have not hearkened to His voice; therefore is this thing 
come upon you. And now, behold, this day I loose thee from the chains 
which are upon thy hand. If it seem good to thee to come with me to 
Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee. But if it seem ill unto 
thee to come with me to Babylon, forbear; behold, all the land is before 
thee; whither it seemeth good and right unto thee to go, go thither. 
(Yet he would not go). Go back then to Gedaliah the son of 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 387 


Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made 
governor over all the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the 
people; or go whithersoever it seemeth right unto thee to go. Then 
the captain of the guard gave him an allowance and a present, and let 
him go. Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to 
Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land. 

Now when all the captains of the forces that were in the fields, even 
they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah, 
son of Ahikam, governor in the land, and had committed unto his care 
men and women and children and of the poorest of the land of them 
that were not carried away captive to Babylon, they came to Gedaliah, 
even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan, sons of 
Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the 
Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their 
men. And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan spake earnestly 
unto them and to their men, and said: Fear not to serve the Chaldzans; 
dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well 
with you. As for me, I will dwell in Mizpah, to meet the Chaldzans 
that may come unto us; but ye, gather ye wine and summer fruits and 
oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in the cities you have taken. 

Likewise, when all the Judwans that were in Moab and in Edom and 
in all the countryside, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant 
of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah son of Ahikam, then 
all the Judwans returned out of all the places whither they had been 
driven, and came to the land of Judah to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and 
gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance. 

Moreover, Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the 
forces that were in the fields, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and said unto 
him: Dost thou know that Bgalis, the king of the Ammonites, hath 
sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take thy life? But Gedaliah son 
of Ahikam believed them not. Then Johanan son of Kareah spake to 
Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying: Let me go, I pray thee, and I will 
slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it; wherefore 
should he take thy life, that all the Judw#ans that are gathered unto 
thee should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish? But 
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said unto Johanan the son of Kareah: Thou 
shalt not do this thing; thou speakest falsely. 

Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of 
Nethaniah, the son of Elishama of the seed royal, and one of the chief 
officers of the king, and ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son 
of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah. 
Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men that were 
with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam with the sword and 
slew him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. 
Ishmael also slew all the Judsans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, 
and the Chaldeans that were found there, even the men of war. 

Now it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and 
no man knew it, that there came certain men from Shechem, from 
Shiloh and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards 
shaven and their clothes rent and having cut themeslves, with meal- 
offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring to the House of 
Yahweh. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah 
to meet them, weeping all along as he went. And when he met them, 
he said unto them: Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. And it was 
so, that when they came into the middle of the city, Ishmael the son of 


388 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Nethaniah slew them and cast them into the midst of the pit, he and the 
men who were with him. But ten were found among them who said: 
Slay us not; for we have stores hidden in the field of wheat, of barley, 
of oil and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among their 
brethren. Now the pit wherein Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the 
men whom he had slain by the side of Gedaliah, was that which Asa 
the king had made for fear of Baasha, king of Israel; the same Ishmael 
the son of Nethaniah filled with them that were slain. Then Ishmael 
carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, 
even the king’s daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah 
whom Nebuzaradan had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; 
Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed 
to go over to the children of Ammon. 

But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the. 
forces that were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael had done, 
they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael, and they found 
him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. Now, when all the people 
that were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the 
captains of the forces that were with him, they were glad. So all 
the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah cast 
about, and returned, and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah. But 
Ishmael escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the children 
of Ammon. 

Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the 
forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people from Mizpah 
whom he had recovered from Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, after he had 
slain Gedaliah, son of Ahikam,—cven the men of war, the women and 
the children, and the officers whom he had brought back from Gibeon; 
and they departed and dwelt in Geruth Chimham which is near Beth- 
lehem, to be on the road to Egypt. For he was afraid of the Chaldeans, 
because Ishmael had slain Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, whom the king 
of Babylon had made governor over the land. 

Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, 
and Jezaniah, the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even 
unto the greatest, came near and said unto Jeremiah the prophet: Let 
our supplication be accepted before thee, we pray thee; do thou pray 
for us unto Yahweh thy God for all this remnant; (for we are left but a 
few out of many, as thine eyes do see us) that Yahweh thy God may 
tell us the way wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do. 
Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them: I have heard you. Behold, 
I will pray unto Yahweh your God according to your words. And it 
shall come to pass that whatsoever thing Yahweh shall answer you, I 
will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you. Then they 
said to Jeremiah: Yahweh be a true and faithful witness against us if 
we do not faithfully according to all the word wherewith Yahweh thy 
God shall send thee to us. Whether it be good or whether it be evil, 
we will hearken to the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send thee; 
that it may be well with us when we hearken to the voice of Yahweh 
our God. 

And it came to pass-after ten days, that the word of Yahweh came 
unto Jeremiah. Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah and all the 
captains of the forces that were with him, and all the people from the 
least unto the greatest, and said unto them: Thus saith Yahweh, the 
God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before. 
Him: If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you and not 





THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 389 


pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up; for I repent 
Me of the evil I have done unto you. Be not afraid of the king of 
Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith Yahweh; for 
I am with you to save you and to deliver you out of his hand. And I 
will grant you compassion, that he may have compassion upon you, and 
cause you to return to your own land. But if ye say: We will not 
abide in this land, so that ye hearken not to the voice of Yahweh your 
God, saying: No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall 
see no war, nor hear the sound of the horn nor have hunger for bread; 
there will we abide; then, hear ye the word of Yahweh, O remnant of 
Judah. Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: If ye wholly 
set your faces to enter Egypt and go to sojourn there, then it shall come 
to pass that the sword which ye fear shall overtake you there in the land 
of Egypt; and the famine, whereof ye are afraid, shall follow hard after 
you there in Egypt, and there ye shall die. So shall it be with all the 
men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall 
die by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence; and none of them 
shall remain, or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. 
For thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: As Mine anger and 
My fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
so shall My fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter Egypt; 
and ye shall be an execration and an astonishment and a curse and a 
reproach, and ye shall see this place no more. Yahweh hath spoken 
concerning you, O remnant of Judah. Go ye not into Egypt. Know 
certainly that I have forewarned you this day. 

For ye have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for ye sent me 
unto Yahweh your God, saying: Pray for us unto Yahweh our God, 
and according unto all that Yahweh our God shall say, so deciare unto us, 
and we will do it. And I have this day declared it unto you; but ye 
have not hearkened to the voice of Yahweh your God in anything for 
which He hath sent me unto you. Now therefore, know certainly that 
ye shall die by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence in the 
place whither ye desire to go, to sojourn there. 

And it came to pass that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speak- 
ing unto all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, wherewith 
Yahweh their God had sent him to them, even all these words, Azariah, 
the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the proud 
men spake, saying unto Jeremiah: Thou speakest falsely; Yahweh our 
God hath not sent thee to say: Ye shall not go to Egypt to sojourn 
there; but Baruch, the son of Neriah, setteth thee on against us, to de- 
liver us into the hands of the Chaldzans, that they may put us to death 
or carry us away captive to Babylon. So Johanan the son of Kareah 
and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah that were 
returned from all the nations whither they had been driven to sojourn, 
the men and the women and the children and the king’s daughters, and 
every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with 
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the 
prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah; and they came into the land of 
Egypt; for they hearkened not to the voice of Yahweh. And they came 
to Tahpanhes. 


390 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


THE SIXTH BOOKLET 


PROPHECIES OF THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL, MOSTLY EXILIC, BUT PRE- 
SERVING PASSAGES ATTRIBUTABLE TO JEREMIAH 


(Ch, xxx,1-9) 22+21> xxxi; 2-9, 15-20; 27-34; 38-40; xxxil) 24-da, 
XKX1i1 4, 4135) 


The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying: Thus 
speaketh Yahweh, the God of Israel: Write all these words which I 
have spoken unto thee in a book. For lo, the days come when I will 
turn the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, and I will cause thee 


to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall pos- 
sess it. 


These are the words which Yahweh spake concerning Israel and 
Judah. For thus saith Yahweh: 


We have heard acry of terror, of fear and not of peace. 
Ask ye now and see whether a man doth travail with child? 
Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins 

As awoman in travail, and all faces turned pale? 


Alas; for that day is great, so that none is like it; 
A time of trouble unto Jacob, but out of it he shall be saved. 
And it shall be in that day, saith Yahweh Sabaoth, 
I will break his yoke from thy neck, and will burst thy bonds. 
Strangers shall no more enslave them, 
But they shall serve Yahweh, their God. 
Shall serve David their king, whom I 
Will raise up to them. 


Thus saith Yahweh: Thy hurt is incurable; 
Thy wound is grievous; none thinketh it may be bound up, 
Nor hast thou healing medicines. 
All thy lovers have forgotten thee, they seek thee not; 
For I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, 
With a cruel chastisement, 
For the greatness of thine iniquity, 
Because thy sins were increased. 


Why criest thou for thy hurt, that thy pain exceedeth? 
For the greatness of thine iniquity have I thus punished thee. 
But all they that devour thee shall be devoured, 
And all thy Cope e ne yea all, shall go into captivity. 
hey that spoil thee shall be a spoil, 
Al that prey upon thee shall be a prey; 
But I will restore health unto thee, 
And I will heal thee of thy wounds. 


Because they have called thee an outcast,— 
he is Zion; none careth for her! 
Thus saith Yahweh: 
Behold, I will turn the captivity of Jacob’s tents, 
I will have compassion upon her dwelling- places. 
The city shall be rebuilt on her own hill, 
The palace shail be inhabited as of old. 
Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice 
f them that make merry; 
And I will multiply them; they shall not be diminished. 
I will greatly increase them; they shall not dwindle away. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 391 


Their children also shall be as aforetime, 
Their congregation shall be established before Me 
And I will punish all that oppress them. 
Their princes shall be of themselves, 
Their ruler shall come from their midst, 
And I will cause him to draw near, he shall approach Me. 
Now, who is he that hath pledged his heart to draw 
Near unto Me? saith Yahweh. 


Thus saith Yahweh: The people that were left of the sword 
Have found grace in the wilderness, 
Even Israel, when I shall go to cause him to rest. 
I have loved thee with an enduring love, therefore 
With love have I drawn thee. 
Again will I build thee and thou shalt be built, 
O virgin of Israel; 
Again shalt thou be adorned with tabrets, 
And go forth to dances of merry-making; 
Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria. 
The planters shall plant, and shall have the use thereof. 


There shall yet be a day that watchmen 
Shall call on Mount Ephraim: 
Arise ye and let us go up to Zion, to Yahweh our God! 
For thus saith Yahweh: Rejoice for Jacob, shout aloud 
At the head of the nations, 
Announce ye, praise ye, and say: 
O Yahweh, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel! 


Behold, I will bring them from the north country, 
And gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth; 
And with them the blind and the lame, 
The woman that bringeth her child 
And her that travaileth with child, together. 
A great company shall they return; they shall come a-weeping, 
With supplications will I make them to walk; I will lead them 
By rapid rivers, in a narrow path, but they shall not stumble; 
For I am become a Father to Israel 
And My first-born is Ephraim. 


Thus saith Yahweh: A voice is heard in Ramah, 
Lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; 
She refuseth to be comforted for her children, 
Because they are not. 
Thus saith Yahweh: Refrain thy voice from weeping 
And thine eyes from tears, 
For thy work shall be rewarded. 
They shall come back from the enemy’s land, 
Yea, there is hope for thy future! 
That thy children shall return to their own border. 


I surely heard Ephraim making a moan,— 
Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a calf untrained 
Turn thou me and I shall be turned, for Thou art Yahweh, my God. 
Surely, after I was turned, I repented; 
After I was taught I smote upon my thigh. 
I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, 
Because I did bear the reproach of my youth. 


392 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me? a child that is fondled? 
For as oft as I do speak of him, I remember him earnestly still. 
Therefore doth my heart yearn for him; 
I will surely have pity upon him. 


Set thee up way-marks, make thee guide-posts! 
Set thy heart toward the highway, 
Even the way thou didst go. 
Return, O virgin of Israel, return to these thy cities! 
How long wilt thou turn away coyly, 
O thou back-sliding daughter? 
Yahweh hath created a new thing on earth, 
A woman shall woo a man. 


Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: 
Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah 
And in her cities, 
When I shall turn their capitivity. 
May Yahweh bless thee, O home of Righteousness 
O mountain of Holiness! 
And Judah and all the cities thereof 
Shall dwell therein together; 
The husbandmen and they that guide the flocks, 
For I have satisfied the weary soul, 
And every pining soul have I comforted. 


Upon this, I awaked and beheld, 
And my sleep was sweet to me. 


Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will sow the house of 
Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of 
beast. And it shall come to pass that like as I have watched over 
them to pluck up and to break down, and to overthrow and to destroy 
and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, saith 
Yahweh. 

In those days they shall say no more: 

The fathers have eaten sour graps, and the children’s teeth are set 
on edge, but every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that 
eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. 

Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a NEW 
COVENANT with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not 
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day 
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; 
forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was an husband 
unto them, saith Yahweh; but this is the covenant that I will make with 
the house of Israel. AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAITH YAHWEH, I WILL PUT MY 
LAW IN THEIR INWARD PARTS AND IN THEIR HEART WILL I WRITE IT. AND I 
WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. AND THEY SHALL NO 
MORE TEACH EVERY MAN HIS NEIGHBOR, AND EVERY MAN HIS BROTHER, 
SAYING: KNOW YAHWEH; FOR THEY SHALL ALL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST 
OF THEM UNTO THE GREATEST OF THEM, SAITH YAHWEH. FOR I WILL 
FORGIVE THEIR INIQUITY, AND THEIR SIN WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE. 

Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that the city shall be built 
to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel unto the gate of the corner, 
and the measuring line shall yet go out straight forward unto the hill 
Gareb, and shall turn about unto Goah. And the whole valley of the 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 393 


dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook Kidron, 
unto the corner of the horse-gate toward the east, shall be holy unto 
Yahweh. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more for- 
ever. 

[Then said Jeremiah:] Behold the mounds! They are come unto 
the city to take it, and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans 
that are fighting against it, and what Thou hast spoken is come to pass; 
and behold, Thou seest it. Yet Thou hast said unto me, O God Yahweh; 
Buy thou the field for money, and call witnesses;* whereas the city is 
given into the hand of the Chaldzans. 

Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying: Behold, I am 
Yahweh, the God of all flesh; is there any thing too hard for Me? 
Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into 
the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall take it; and 
the Chaldwans that fight against this city shall come and set this city 
on fire and burn it with the houses upon whose roofs they have offered 
unto Baal, and poured out drink-offerings unto other gods, to provoke 
Me. For the Children of Israel and the Children of Judah have done 
only that which was evil in My sight from their youth; for the Children 
of Israel have only provoked Me with the work of their hands. 

For this city hath been to Me a provocation of Mine anger and of 
My fury from the day they built if even unto this day, that I should 
remove it from before My face; because of all the evil which they have 
done to provoke Me, they and their kings, their princes, and their 
priests, and their prophets and the men of Judah and the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem. And they have turned unto Me the back and not the 
face; and though I taught them, teaching them betimes and often, 
yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. 

But they set their abominations in the house which is called by 
My name to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal which 
are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to set apart their sons and 
daughters unto Melech; which I commanded them not, neither came 
it into My mind that they would do this abomination, to cause Judah 
to sin. 

And now thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning this 
city, whereof ye say: It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon 
by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence,—Behold, I will 
gather them out of all countries whither I have driven them in Mine 
anger and in My fury and in My great wrath; and I will bring them 
again into this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they 
shall be My people, and I will be their God; and I will give them 
- one heart and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good 
of them and of their children after them. And I will make an ever- 
lasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to 
do them good, but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall 
not depart from Me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and 
I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and 
My whole soul. 

For thus saith Yahweh: Like as I have brought this great evil 
upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have 
promised them. And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye 
say: It is desolate, without man or beast; it is given into the hands 
of the Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money and subscribe deeds, 

1Referring to the sale of land to his cousin Hanameel, given in its chronological order 


in Booklet IV (Ch. xxxii, 6-15). The prayer following it is exilic and will be found in 
Appendix II, 


394 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


and seal them, and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the 
places about Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities 
of the hill-country, and in the cities of the Lowland, and in the cities 
of the South; for I will cause their captivity to return, saith Yahweh. 


Moreover the word of Yahweh came unto Jeremiah the second time, 
while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying: Thus 
saith Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city 
and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which are broken down 
for mounds and for ramparts whereon they come to fight with the 
Chaldeans; even to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I have 
slain in Mine anger and in My fury, and for all for whose wickedness I 
have hid My face from this city. Behold I will bring it healing and 
cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal unto them the abundance 
of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the 
captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at the first. 

I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries 
against Me; and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have 
sinned against Me, and whereby they have transgressed against Me. 
And this city shall be to Me for a name of Joy, for a praise and for 
a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear the good 
that I do unto them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and 
for all the peace that I shall procure for it. 

Thus saith Yahweh: Yet again shall there be heard in this place, 
whereof ye say: It is waste, without man and without beast, even 
in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate 
without man and without inhabitant, and without beast,—the voice 
of them that say: Give thanks to Yahweh Sabaoth, for Yahweh is 
good, for His mercy endureth for ever; even of them that bring offer- 
ings of thanksgiving into the House of Yahweh. For I will cause the 
captivity of the land to return as at the first, saith Yahweh. 

Thus saith Yahweh Sabaoth: Yet again shall there be in this place 
which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all the cities 
thereof, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. 
In the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the Lowland, in the 
cities of the South and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about 
Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, shall the Flocks again pass under 
the hands of Him that counteth them, saith Yahweh. 


[The Seventh Booklet of the “Book of Jeremiah” (Ch. xliii, 7b-13; xliv, 1-30; xlvi, 
18-28; xlvii-li) was all added very late, and will therefore be found in Part II in the 
order of the events which inspired the various poems on the fate of the nations akin to 
Israel. Some legends concerning Jeremiah in Egypt also belong there; the oldest and 
most persistent one, however, is given here in Appendix II to Booklets II-V. Chapter lii 
is taken with but slight change from the same records or traditions used by P in 2 


Kings, ae 15-20; XXv, 1-21, 27-30; it is already given in P’s supplement to J’s History. 
——EpITOR. 


APPENDIX II 


PASSAGES FOUND IN BOOKLETS II-V, WRITTEN PRESUMABLY BETWEEN 
598 AND 584, BUT NOT BY JEREMIAH, AND QUITE OPPOSED 
TO His PROPHECIES. 


I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries 
whither I have driven them, and will bring them back to their folds; 
and they shall be fruitful and multiply. And I will set up shepherds 
over them who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be 
dismayed; neither shall any be lacking, saith Yahweh. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 395 


Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, 
That I will raise to David a righteous shoot; 
He shall reign as king and prosper, and shall execute justice 
And righteousness in the land. 
In his days shall Judah be saved, and Israel dwell safely. 
And this is the name whereby He shall be called, 


YAHWEH. OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


Therefore behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that they shall 
no more say: As Yahweh liveth that brought up the Children of Israel 
out of the land of Egypt; but, As Yahweh liveth that brought up and 
led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from 
all the countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in 
their own land. 


(Ch. xxiii, 3-8) 


Behold, a storm of Yahweh is gone forth in fury, 
Yea, a whirling storm! 
It shall whirl on the head of the wicked. 
The anger of Yahweh shall not abate 
Till He have effected, and have performed 
The purpose of His heart. 
In the end of days ye shall consider it.* 
(xxlil, 19-20) 


Behold, I am against the prophets, saith Yahweh, that steal My 
words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets, 
saith Yahweh, that use their own tongues, yet say: He saith. Behold, 
I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, saith Yahweh, and do 
tell them, and do cause My people to err by their lies, and by their 
wantonness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither can 
they profit these people at all, saith Yahweh. 

And when this people or the prophet or a priest shall ask thee, 
saying: What is the burden of Yahweh? thou shalt answer them: 
What burden? I will cast you off, saith Yahweh. And as for the 
prophet and the priest and the people that shall say: The burden 
(or oracle) of Yahweh,—I will even punish that man and his house. 

Thus shall ye say, every one to his neighbor, and every one to his 
brother: What hath Yahweh answered? or, What hath Yahweh spoken? 
And the burden of Yahweh shall ye mention no more; for every man’s 
own word shall be his burden. Would ye pervert the words of the 
living God? of Yahweh Sabaoth, our God? Thus shalt thou say to 
the prophet: What hath God answered thee? and, What hath Yahweh 
spoken? But if ye say: The burden of Yahweh—thus saith Yahweh; 
because ye say this word: The burden of Yahweh; and I have sent 
unto you saying: Ye shall not say: The burden of Yahweh; Behold, 
I will utterly tear you out, and I will cast you and the city that 
I gave you and your fathers, away from My presence; and I will bring 
an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall 
not be forgotten.’ (xxiii, 30-40) 

1 This little poem appears again in Ch. xxx, 23-24, 
2The remarkable attempt of some prosaic commentator to expound Jeremiah’s great 


condemnation of false prophets, which is as clear and forceful as this exposition is the 
reverse. 


396 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, 
that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land 
of the Chaldwans for their iniquity, saith Yahweh, and I will make 
it perpetual desolation. And I will bring upon that land all My words 
which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this 
book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. For 
many nations and great kings shall make bondmen of them also; and 
I will recompense them for their deeds, and according to the work of 
their own hands. (Ch. xxv, 12-14.) 


Fear thou not, O Jacob, My servant, 
Nor be dismayed, O Israel! 
For lo, I will save thee from afar, and bring 
Thy seed from the land of their exile. 
Jacob shall again be quiet and at ease, 
And none shall make him afraid. 
For I am with thee, saith Yahweh, to save thee. 
For I will make a full end of all nations 
Whither I have scattered thee; 
But of thee I will make no full end. 
Though I will correct thee in measure, 
I will not utterly destroy thee.’ 
(Ch. xxx, 10-411.) 


a ee 


A PROPHECY OF THE NATION’S TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO JUDAEA 


Hear the word of Yahweh, ye Nations; declare it 
In the isles afar off. 
He that scattered Israel gathereth him, 
And keepeth him from the hand of him 
That is stronger than he. 
And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, 
And shall flow together to the goodness of Yahweh, 
To the corn and the wine and the oil. 
To the young of the flock and the herd. 
Their soul shall be as a watered garden; they shall sorrow 
No more at all. 
Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, 
The youths and old men together; 
For their mourning will I turn to joy, 
IT will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow. 
And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness. 
And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith Yahweh. 
(Ch. xxxi, 10-14.) 


Thus saith Yahweh, who giveth the sun for a light by day, 
The laws of the moon and the stars for a light by night, 
Who stirreth up the sea, that the waves thereof roar,— 
Yahweh Sabaoth is His name,— 
If these statutes depart from Me, saith Yahweh, 
The seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation for ever 
From before Me. 
If heaven above can be measured and earth’s foundations 
Searched out from beneath, 
Then I also will cut off Israel’s seed 
For all that they have done, saith Yahweh. 
(xxxiz 25e37e 
1Found again in Ch. xlvi, 27-28 in a fitting connection. Here it is out of harmony 
with the succeeding strophe. 


THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 397 


O God, behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy 
great power, and by Thy stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too 
hard for Thee, who showest mercy unto thousands, and dost recom- 
pense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after 
them,—the great, the mighty GOD, Yahweh Sabaoth is His name, great 
in counsel and mighty in work; whose eyes are open upon all the ways 
of the sons of men, to give to every one according to his way and 
according to the fruit of his doings; who didst signs and wonders in 
the land of Egypt, even unto this day, both in Israel and among other 
men; and madest Thee a name as at this day; and didst bring forth 
Thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders 
and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great 
terror; and gavest them this land which Thou didst swear unto their 
fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; and they 
came in and possessed it; but they hearkened not to Thy voice, neither 
walked in Thy laws; they have done nothing at all that Thou didst 
command them to do; therefore Thou hast caused all this evil to befall 
WTEC anny paebes 

(Ch. xxxii, 17-23.) 


Thus saith Yahweh, the Maker thereof, Yahweh who formed it 
To establish it; (Yahweh is His name), 
Call unto Me and I will answer thee, and will tell thee 
Great things and hidden, 
Which thou knowest not. 
(CHS exxXilinic-3y) 


And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying: Considerest 
thou not what this people have spoken, saying: The two families 
which Yahweh did choose, He hath cast them off? And they contemn 
My people, that they should no longer be a nation before them. There- 
fore thus saith Yahweh: If My covenant be not with day and 
night; if I have not appointed the laws of heaven and earth; then 
will I also cast away the seed of David My servant, so that I will not 
take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, of Isaac and 
Jacob; for I will cause their exiles to return, and I will have compas- 
sion upon them. 

(XXxili, 23-26.) 


A LEGEND OF A PROPHECY CONCERNING THE FATE OF BABYLON 
WHICH Was Cast INTO THE RIVER EUPHRATES 


The word which Jeremiah the Prophet commanded Seraiah the son 
of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king 
of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah 
was quarter-master. And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that 
should come upon Babylon, even all these words which are written 
concerning Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When thou comest 

1Compare with Jeremiah’s prayer, (Ch. xviii, 19-28). The conclusion of this prolix 
preamble has been given in its proper connection in Booklet V, a simple, earnest prayer 
of the perplexed prophet for guidance. 

2Ch. xxxiii, 14-18; 19-22; are slight re-arrangements of xxiii, 5-7 and xx, 35-37, given 


above. Ch. xxxviii, 14-20 is a second version of xxxvii, 18-21. It is unnecessary to give 
these repetitions here. 


398 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


to Babylon, then see that thou read all these words, and say: O Yahweh! 
Thou hast spoken concerning this place to cut it off, that none shall 
dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate 
for ever. And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading 
this book, that thou shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst 
of the Euphrates. And thou shalt say: Thus shall Babylon sink, and 
shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring upon her; 
and they will be weary. 
(Ch. li, 59-64.) 


THE PRAISE OF WISDOM 
(Proverbs, i, 2-ix, 18. A. V.) * 


SUPERSCRIPTION 


To know Wisdom and Instruction, to discern words of understanding; 
To receive the discipline of wisdom in justice and right and equity; 
To give prudence to the simple, to the young knowledge and discretion 
That the wise may hear and increase in learning; 
And the man of understanding may attain to wise counsels. 
To understand a proverb and a figure, 
The words of the wise and their dark sayings. 


i, 2-6.) 


The Fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, 
But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction. 


Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not 
the teaching of thy mother, 
For they shall be a chaplet of grace to thy head, 
and chains about thy neck. 


My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. 
If they say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; 
Let us lurk for the innocent causelessly, 
Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, 
And whole, as those that go down into the pit; 
We shall find all precious substance, 
We shall fill our houses with spoil; 
Thou shalt cast in thy lot with us, 
We will all have one purse,— 
My son, walk not thou in the way Sith them, 
Restrain thy feet from their path. 


For their feet run to evil, they make haste to shed blood. 
But in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird; 
And these lie in wait for their own blood, 
That lurk privily for their own lives. 
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; 
It taketh away the lives of the owners thereof. 


(Ch-cl, \7-19:) 


Wisdom crieth aloud in the street, 
She uttereth her voice in the broad places, 
She crieth in the market of commerce, 
At the entrance of the city-gates she uttereth her voice: 
How long, ye thoughtless ones, will ye love thoughtlessness? 
1Indisputably post-Deuternomic; written as an introduction to the extant collections 
of proverbs, and to emphasize the necessity for wisdom in overcoming the special temp- 


tations of the author’s day. The title was first applied by Prof. Ewald, of Gottingen, 
c, 1840, and has since been generally accepted. 


399 


400 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And scorners take delight in scorning, and fools hate wisdom? 
Turn you at my reproof! Behold, I will pour out 
My spirit upon you, 
I will make known my words unto you. 


Because I have called, and ye refused, 
I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded, 
But ye set at naught my counsel, and would none of my rebuke,— 
I also will laugh in the day of. your calamity, 
I will mock when your fear cometh; 
When your fear cometh as a storm, 
And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind, 
When distress and anguish come upon you; 
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; 
They shall seek me diligently, but they shall not find me. 
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose 
the Fear of Yahweh. 
They would none of my counsel, they despised my reproof, 
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, 
And be filled with their own devices. 
For the waywardness of the thoughtless shall slay them 
And the confidence of fools shall destroy them; 
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, 
And shall be quiet, without fear of evil. 
(Ch. i, 20-33.) 


My son, if thou wilt hear my words 
And lay up my commandments within thee, 
So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom , 
And apply thy heart to understanding; 
Yea, if thou call for understanding, 
And lift up thy voice for discernment; 
If thou seek her as silver, and search for her 
as for hid treasures; 
Then shalt thou understand the Fear of Yahweh, 
And find the knowledge of God. 


For Yahweh giveth wisdom. 
Out of His mouth cometh knowledge and discernment. 
He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright, 
He is a shield to them who walk in integrity, 
That He may guard the paths of justice, 
And preserve the way of His saints. 


Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice and equity, 
Yea, every good path. 
For wisdom shall enter into thine heart, 
And knowledge be pleasant unto thy soul; 
Discretion shall watch over thee, discernment shall guard thee, 
To deliver thee from the way of evil, 
From the men that speak froward things. 
(Who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in ways of darkness; 
Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of evil; 
ho are crooked in their ways, and perverse in their paths.) 
To deliver thee from the strange woman, 
From the stranger of flattering words, 
That forsaketh the lord of her youth, 
And forgetteth the covenant of her God. 
(For her house sinketh down to death, her paths unto the shades; 
None that go unto her return, nor attain unto the paths of life.) 
That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, 


THE PRAISE OF WISDOM 401 


And keep the paths of the righteous. 
For the upright shall dwell in the land, 
And the whole-hearted shall remain in it. 
But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, 
And the faithless shall be plucked up out of it. 
(Cie iigetees.) 


My son, forget not my teaching, 
But let thy heart keep my commandments. 
For length of days and years of life and peace 
Will they add to thee. 
Let not kindness and truth forsake thee 
Bind them about thy neck, write them on the table of thy heart. 
So shalt thou find favor and good repute in the eyes of God and man. 


Trust in Yahweh with all thy heart 
And lean not upon thine own understanding! 
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths. 
on not wise in thine own eyes, 
ar Yahweh and depart from evil; 
It shall Be Pantin to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. 


Honor Yahweh with thy substance, 
And with the first-fruits of all thine increase; 
So. shall thy barns be filled with plenty, 
And thy vats overflow with new wine. 


My son, despise not the chastening of Yahweh 
Neither spurn his correction. 
For whom Yahweh loveth, He chasteneth 
Even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. 


Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom 
And the man that getteth understanding, 

For the merchandise of it is better than that of silver, 
And the gain thereof than wrought gold. 


She is more precious than rubies; 
All the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared 
unto her. 
Length of days is in her right hand; 
In her left are riches and honor. 
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her, 
And happy is every one that holdeth her feet. 


Yahweh by wisdom founded the earth, 
By understanding, He established the heavens; 
By His knowledge the depths were broken up, 
And the skies drop down the dew. 
(Ch. iii, 1-20.) 


My son, keep sound wisdom and discretion, : 
Let them not depart from thine eyes; 
So shall they be life to thy soul, and grace to thy neck. 
Then shalt thou walk in thy way securely, 
And thy feet shall not stumble. 
When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid; 
Yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. 


402 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Be not afraid of sudden terror, 
Neither of the destruction of the wicked when it cometh; 
For Yahweh shall be thy confidence, 
And shall keep thy foot from being caught. 
(Ch. iii, 24-26.) 


Withold not good from him to whom it is due, 
When it is in the power of thy hand to do it. 
Say not to thy neighbor: Go, and come again, 
When thou hast it by thee, saying: 
To-morrow I will give. 


Devise not evil against thy neighbor, 
Seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. 
Strive not with a man without cause, 
If he have done thee no harm. 
Envy thou not the man of violence, and choose none of his ways; 
For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, 
But his counsel is with the upright. 
The curse of Yahweh is in the house of the wicked, 
But He blesseth the habitation of the righteous. 
Though He scorneth the scorners, 
He giveth grace to the humble. 
The wise shall inherit honor; 
But shame shall be the promotion of fools. 
(Ch. iii, 27-35.) 


Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, 

And attend to know understanding. 
For I give you good doctrine; forsake ye not my teaching. 

For I was a son unto my father, 

Tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. 
And he taught me and said unto me: 

Let thy heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live. 

Get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not; 
Nor decline from the words of my mouth. 

Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee; 
Love her, and she will keep thee. 


Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom! 
Yea, with all thy getting, get understanding! 
Exalt her, and she will exalt thee; 
She will bring thee to honor, if thou embrace her. 
She will give to thy hand a chaplet of grace, 
A crown of glory will she bestow upon thee. 
(Ch. iv, 4-9.) 


Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, 
And the years of thy life shall be many. 
I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, 
I have led thee in the paths of righteousness. 
When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened, 
And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. 
Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go; keep her, 
For she is thy life. 


THE PRAISE OF WISDOM 403 


Enter not into the path of the wicked, 
And walk not in the way of evil men. 
Avoid, pass not by it, turn from it and pass on. 
For they sleep not, unless they have done evil. 
Their sleep is taken away unless they cause some one to fall. 
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. 
But the path of the righteous is as the light of dawn 
That shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 
The way of the wicked is as darkness, 
They know not at what they stumble. 


My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear to my sayings; 
Let them not depart from thine eyes, 
Keep them in the midst of thy heart; 
For they are life to them that find them, 
And health to all their flesh. 


Above all that thou guardest, keep thy heart, 
For out of it are the issues of life. 
Put away from thee a froward mouth, 
And perverse lips put far from thee. 
Let thine eyes look right on 

And let thine eyelids look straight before thee. 
Make plain the ways of thy feet, 

And let all thy ways be established. 
Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left. 
Remove thy foot from evil. 

(Ch. iv, 10-27.) 


My son, attend to my wisdom, 
Incline thine ear to my understanding; 
That thou mayest preserve discretion, 
And that thy lips may keep knowledge. 
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, 
And her mouth is smoother than oil. 
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 
Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on Sheol; 
Lest she should walk the level paths of life, 
Her ways are unstable, and she knoweth it not. 


Now then, ye children, hearken unto me, 
And depart not from the words of my mouth. 
Remove thy way far from her 
And come not near the door of her house; 
Lest thou give thy vigor unto others, 
And thy years to the cruel; 
Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, 
And thy labors be in the house of an alien. 
And thou moan when thine end cometh, 
And thy flesh and thy body be consumed. 
And thou say: How have I hated instruction, 
And my heart despised reproof! 
Neither have I hearkened to the voice of my teachers, 
Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. 
I was well nigh in all evil, 
In the midst of the congregation and the assembly. 


404 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Drink waters out of thine own cistern, 
And running waters out of thine own well. 
Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, 
And rivers of water in the streets? 
Let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee. 
Let thy fountain be_ blessed, 
And have joy of the wife of thy youth. 
As a lovely hind and a graceful doe, 
Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; 
With her love be thou ravished always. 
Why then wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman? 
And embrace the bosom of an alien? 


For the ways of men are before the eyes of Yahweh, 
And He maketh level all His paths. 
His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked, 
And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. 
He shall die for lack of instruction, 
And in the greatness of his folly go astray. 
(Chsty.i-233) 


My son, if thou art become surely for a stranger, 

If thou hast struck thy hands for a stranger, 
Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, 

Art taken by the words of thy mouth. 

Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, 

Seeing thou art come into the hands of thy neighbor, 

Go, humble thyself, and importune thy neighbor. 
Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids; 
Deliver thyself as a gazelle from the hands of the hunter 

And as a bird from the hand of the fowler. 

(Ch. vi, 41-5.) 


Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. 
Which having no chief, overseer or ruler, 
Provideth her bread Ne Le summer, and gathereth her food in the 
arves 

How long wilt thou sleep, thou sluggard? 
When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 
Yet a little sleep, a little more slumber, 

A little folding of the hands to sleep! 
So shall thy poverty come as a runner, 

And thy want, as an armed man. 

(Ch. vi, 6-11) 


A base person, a man of iniquity 
Is he that walketh with a froward mouth, that winketh with his eyes, 
That scrapeth with his feet, that pointeth with his fingers. 
Frowardness is in his heart: he deviseth evil continually; 
He soweth discord. 
Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly 
On a sudden shall he be broken, and that eiitiodll remedy. 


There are six things which Yahweh hateth, 
Yea, seven which are an abomination unto Him. 
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 
A heart that deviseth evil things, 
And feet that are swift in running to mischief. 
A false witness that uttereth lies, 
And he that soweth discord between brethren. 
(Ch. vi, 12-19) 


THE PRAISE OF WISDOM 


My son, keep the commandment of thy father, 
_ And forsake not the teaching of thy mother. 
Bind them continually upon thy heart, tie them about thy neck. 
When thou walkest it shall lead thee; when thou liest down, 
It shall watch over thee, 
And when thou wakest, it shall talk with thee. 


For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; 
And the reproofs of instruction are the way of life, 
To keep thee from the evil woman, 
From the smoothness of the silken tongue. 
Lust not after her beauty in thy heart 
Nor let her snare thee with her eyelids. 
For because of a harlot, a man is brought to a piece of bread, 
And the adulteress hunteth for the precious life. 


Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? 
Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? 

So he that goeth to his neighbor’s wife;; 

Whoever toucheth her shall not go unpunished. 


Men do not despise a thief if he steal 

To satisfy his need when he is hungry; 

But, if he be found, he must restore seven-fold; 
He must give all the substance of his house. 


He that committeth adultery is void of understanding. 
He that: doeth it would destroy his own soul. 
Wounds and dishonor shall he get, 
And his reproach shall not be wiped away. 
For jealousy is the rage of a man, 
And he will not spare in the day of vengeance. 
He will not regard any ransom; 
Neither will he be content though thou givest many gifts. 


(Ch. vi, 20-35) 


My son, keep my words 

And lay up my commandments with thee. 

Keep my commandments and live, 
And my teaching as the apple of thine eye. 

Bind them upon thy fingers, 

Write them upon the tablet of thy heart. 
Say unto Wisdom: Thou art my sister; 

And call understanding thy kins-woman 

That they may keep thee from the strange woman, 
From the stranger that flattereth with her words. 


At the window of my house, I looked forth through my lattice; 
I discerned among the youths, I beheld among the thoughtless 

A young man, void of understanding, 

Passing through the street near her corner. 

And he went the way to her house. 

In the twilight, in the evening of the day, 

In the blackness of night and the darkness, 
Behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, 

And wily of heart. 


She is riotous and rebellious; 
Her feet abide not in her house; 
Now she is in the streets, now in the broad squares, 
And she lieth in wait at every corner. 
So she caught him and kissed him, 


405 


406 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


And with impudent face said unto him: 
Sacrifices of peace-offerings were due from me; 
This day I have paid my vows. 
Therefore came I forth to meet thee, 
To seek thy face, and I have found thee. 
I have decked my couch with coverlets, 
With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. 
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. 
Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning, 
Let us solace ourselves with loves. 
For my husband is not at home; he hath gone a long journey; 
He hath taken with him the bag of money; 
He will come home at the full moon. 


With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield; 
With the blandishment of her lips she enticeth him away. 
He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, 
Or as one in fetters to the correction of the fool, 
Till an arrow strike through his liver; 
As the bird hasteneth to the snare, and knoweth not 
That it is at the cost of his life. 


Now therefore, O ye children, hearken unto me, 
And attend to the words of my mouth 
Let not thy heart decline to her ways; 
Go not astray in her paths. 
For she hath cast down many wounded, 
Yea, a mighty host are all her slain. 
Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of Death. 
Ch. vii; 4-299 


Doth not Wisdom call, and Understanding put forth her voice? 
In the top of high places by the way, 
Where the paths meet she standeth. 
Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, 
At the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud: 
Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. 
O ye thoughtless, understand prudence! 
Ye fools, be of an understanding heart! 
Hear, for I will speak excellent things, 
And the opening of my lips shall be right things, 
For my mouth shall utter truth. 


Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 

All the words of my mouth are Menteadatene 

In them there is nothing crooked or perverse. 

They are all plain to him that understandeth, 

And right to them that find knowledge. 

Receive my instruction and not silver, and knowledge, rather than 
choice gold; 
For wisdom is better than rubies. 
And all desirable things are not comparable unto her. 


I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of devices. 
he Fear of Yahweh is to hate evil; 
Pride and arrogancy and the froward mouth do I hate. 
Counsel is mine, and sound judgment; I am understanding; 
Power is mine; by me kings reign, and princes decree justice. 
I love them that love me, 
And they that seek me earnestly shall find me. 
Riches and honor are with me, yea, enduring riches and righteousness. 


THE PRAISE OF WISDOM 407 


My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold, 
And my revenue than choice silver. 
I walk in the way of righteousness, 
In the midst of the paths of justice, 
That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance. 
And that I may fill their treasuries. 


Yahweh made me in the beginning of His way. 

Before His works of old. 
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, 

Or ever the earth was.» 

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; 

When there were no fountains, abounding in water. 

Before the mountains were settled; before the hills 
Was I brought forth, 

While as yet He had not made the earth nor the fields, 
Nor the beginning of the dust of the world. 


When He established the heavens, I was there. 

When He set a circle upon the face of the deep, 
When He made firm the skies above, 

When the fountains of the deep showed their might, 
When He gave to the sea His decree, 

That the waters should not transgress His command; 

When He appointed the foundations of the earth, 
Then I was by Him a nursling, 

And I was always His delight, playing always before Him, 

Playing in His habitable earth; 

And my delight was with the sons of men. 


Now therefore, ye children, hearken unto me, 
For happy are they that keep my ways. 

Hear instruction, and be wise and refuse it not. 

Happy is the man that hearkeneth to me, watching daily at my gates, 

Waiting at the posts of my desire. 
For whoso findeth me, findeth life 
And obtaineth favor of Yahweh. 

But he that refuseth me wrongeth his own soul; 
All they that hate me love death. 

(Ch. viii, 1-36) 


Wisdom hath builded her house, 
She hath hewn out her seven pillars; 

She hath prepared her meat, she hath mingled her wine; 
She hath also furnished her table. 
She hath sent forth her maidens; 

She calleth aloud on the highest places of the city: 
Whoso is thoughtless, let him turn in hither. 


As for him that lacketh understanding, to him she saith: 
Come, eat of my bread, 
And drink of the wine that I have mingled! 
Forsake all thoughtlessness, and live, 
And walk in the way of understanding. 


He that correcteth a scorner, getteth unto himself shame; 

And he that reproveth a wicked man, getteth himself a blot. 
Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee; 
Reprove a wise man, and he will love thee. 

Give to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser; 

Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. 


408 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


The Fear of Yahweh is the beginning of Wisdom, 
And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 
For by me shall thy days be multiplied, 
And the years of thy life shall be increased. 
If thou art wise, thou art wise for thyself, 
And if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. 
(Ch. ix, 1-42) 


The woman Folly is clamorous; 
She is thoughtless, and knoweth nothing, 
And she sitteth at the door of her house, 
On a seat in the high places of the city 
To call to them that pass by, going right on their ways: 
“Whoso is thoughtless, let him turn in hither,” 
And as for him that lacketh understanding, she saith to him: 
“Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret 
Is pleasant.” 
But she knoweth not that the dead are there, 
That her guests are in the depths of Sheol. 
(Ch. ix, 13-48) 


THE POEM OF NAHUM THE ELKOSHITE 


UPON THE IMPENDING FALL OF NINEVEH 
(Nahum, i, 2—1iii, 19) 


Yahweh is a jealous God, Yahweh avengeth and is full of wrath. 

Yahweh taketh vengeance on His foes, 
He reserveth His wrath for His enemies. 

Yahweh waiteth long, but, great in power, 

_ He will by no means acquit the guilty. 

His path is the whirlwind and the storm, 
The clouds are the dust of His feet; 

He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, 
And drieth up all the rivers. 
Bashan languisheth and Carmel, 

And the flower of Lebanon is withered. 


Before Him the mountains quake, and the little hills dissolve; 
The earth is upheaved at His presence, 
Yea, the world and all that is therein. 
Who can stand before His indignation? 
Who can abide the fierceness of His anger? 
His fury is poured out like fire, 
And the rocks are broken asunder before Him. 


Good is Yahweh! a refuge in time of trouble; 
He knoweth them that put their trust in Him, 
But darkness shall pursue His enemies, 
And with an overwhelming flood will He make an utter end 
Of the place thereof. 


What devise ye against Yahweh? 

He will put an utter end to it. 

Trouble shall not arise a second time. 

For though they be tangled up like thorns, 
And drenched with copious drinking, 

They shall be consumed like stubble that is fully dry. 
Out of thee came he forth that deviseth evil, 
That counselleth wickedness against Yahweh, 
Though they be at peace and many in number, 

Yet shall they be shorn, and he shall pass away. 
Though [I have afflicted thee, O Judah, 

I will afflict thee no more, saith Yahweh. 
Now will I break his yoke from off thee, 
And will burst thy bonds asunder. 


Behold on the mountains the feet of him 
That bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! 
Keep thy solemn feasts, O Judah! perform thy vow. 
For no more shall the wicked molest thee; he is utterly cut off. 
Yahweh hath given command concerning thee 
That thy name shall be known no more. 
Out of the house of thy gods will I destroy 
The graven image, the molten image; ' 
Yea, I will make thy grave, for thou art vile. 


409 


410 THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


He that dasheth to pieces cometh up before thy face. 
Guard thy defenses, watch the roads, 
Make thy loins strong, increase thy powers! 
For Yahweh restoreth the pride of Jacob, 
Yea, the excellency of Israel. 
The shield of his mighty ones is red, 
His warriors are dyed in scarlet. 
The sheen of the chariots is like fire, 
The horses are curbed in the day of preparing; 
Along the streets the chariots are raging, 
They jostle one another in the broad squares 
Their appearance is like torches, they speed like lightning. 


He numbers his nobles; they succeed in their onset; 
They rush to the wall, they set up their mantelet! 
But the gates of the river are opened, 
The gate of the palace is in ruins. 
The queen is uncovered, she is carried away, 
And her maids moan like doves taboring on their breasts. 


Nineveh was once like a pool of water; 
Now her waters are flowing away 
Stand, stand! they cry, but not one looketh back. 
Take ye spoil of silver:and spoil of gold 
For there is no end to the store, 

And the glory of all the infinite wealth of precious things. 

She is empty and desolate and waste; 

The heart melteth, the knees knock together; 
Convulsion is in all loins, and the faces of all grow dark. 


Where is the den of the lions and the lair of the young lions, 
Where the lion and the lioness walked 
And the whelps, 
And none made them afraid? 
The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps, 
For the lioness he strangled the prey, 
And he filled his caves with ravin, and his lairs with spoil. 


Woe to the city of bloodshed, full of lies and rapine! 
Behold, I am against thee, saith Yahweh Sabaoth, 
T will burn thy chariots in the smoke; 
The sword shall devour the young lions; 
I will cut off thy prey from the earth, 
And there shall no more be heard the voice of thy messengers. 


Woe to the city of bloodshed, full of lies and rapine! 
There is no end to the spoil. 
Hark, the whip! and hark, the rattling wheels! 
The noise of prancing horses, of bounding wheels! 
Of horsemen charging with flaming swords 
With the lightning of the spear! 
There is a multitude of slain, a great number of carcasses. 
There is no end to the corpses; they stumble over the bodies. 
Because of the multitude of the harlotries 
the well-favored harlot; 
The mistress of whoredoms, 
That selleth nations through her whoredoms, and peoples 
Through her witcherafts. 


THE POEM OF NAHUM 414 


Behold, I am against thee, saith Yahweh Sabaoth, 
And I will uncover thy skirts before thy face. 
I will show the nations thy nakedness, 
And the kingdoms thy disgrace. 
I will cast loathsome filth upon thee; 
I will make thee vile, and set thee up for a gazing-stock. 
All that look upon thee shall flee before thee, saying: 
Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her? 
Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? 


Art thou better than mighty No-Amon 
Which lay among many streams? 
Waters were round about her, her bulwark was the sea, 
Her wall was the sea. 

Her strength was Ethiopia and Egypt, 
Put with her countless cities, and Libya her help. 
Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity; 
Her young children were dashed in pieces 

At the top of all her streets. 

Her captors cast lots for her honored men, 

And all her great men were bound in chains. 


Thou also shalt be drunken, 
Thou too shalt swoon. 
Thou too shalt seek a refuge because of the enemy. 
All thy strongholds shall be like fig-trees 
With first-ripe figs; 
If they be shaken the figs shall drop 
Into the mouth of the eater. 
Behold, thy populace are but women; 
Fire hath consumed thy defenses; 
The gates of thy land are set wide open to thine enemies. 


Draw thee water for the siege, strengthen thy fortresses! 
Go into the clay-pits and tread the clay, 
Make sure of the brick-moulds! 
There the fire will consume thee, 
The sword shall cut thee down. 
It shall destroy thee, though thou increase and make thyself many, 
As doth the canker-worm, or like a swarm of locusts. 
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven; 
Thy exalted ones are as the locusts, 
Thy captains as swarms of grasshoppers 
Which camp in the hedges on a cold day; 
But when the sun rises they fly away, 
And the place where they are is unknown. 


Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria, thy nobles rest. 
The people are scattered upon the mountains, 
And there is none to recall them. 
There is no healing for thy hurt, thy wound is fatal. 
All that hear report of thee shall clap their hands over thee; 
For upon whom hath not thy wickedness fallen continually? 


THE POEM OF HABAKKUK 
ARRAIGNING THE JUSTICE OF YAHWEH 
(Ch. 4,:2-4, 42a, 13% ii, 1-45)1,-5-42b, 44-173 11, Sb-A3; 15-17, 195348 2 


How long, O Yahweh, shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? 
I cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save! 
Why dost Thou make me look upon wickedness 
And behold grievance? 
Why are rapine and violence before us, 
And strifes and contentions? 
Therefore law is perverted and right judgment 
Is never pronounced; 
For the wicked beset the righteous, 
And wrong judgment is wrested from them. 


Art Thou not from everlasting, O Yahweh, 
My God, my Holy One, 
With eyes too pure to behold evil, 
That canst not gaze on iniquity? 
Wherefore, then, dost thou look favorably 
On them that deal treacherously? 
And art silent when the wicked devoureth 
The man more righteous than he? 
I will stand upon the watch, I will set me on my tower 
To see what He will say to me, 
And what I shall answer unto His reproof. 


Then did Yahweh answer me and say: 
Write down the vision and make it plain 
That a man may read it readily when running swiftly. 
For the vision is for a time appointed; 
It declareth the end; it will not lie. 
Though it tarry, wait thou for it, 
Because it will surely come; it cannot delay. 


Behold, the haughty of soul hath no uprightness in him; 
But he that walketh righteously. 
Shall live because of his faith. 
Look around you among the nations, observe and ponder 
And marvel! 
For I will work a work in your days 
Which ye will not believe for the telling. 
For behold, I am raising the Chaldzans 
Against that bitter, impetuous nation 
That marcheth throughout the earth to possess 
Dwelling-places not theirs. 
Terrible, dreadful are they,—a law unto themselves. 


412 


THE POEM OF HABAKKUK 413 


Their horses are swifter than leopards, 
More fierce than wolves of the desert. 
Their horsemen spread them abroad, yea, they come from far; 
They fly like vultures hastening to devour. 
All of them come to do violence, 
Their faces sup up the east wind. 
They gather up captives as the sand, 
And they do scoff at kings. 
To them princes are a derision, strongholds they deride. 
For they heap up earthworks and take it. 
Then their spirit swells to overflowing, 
They impute their strength to their god. 


Thou, O Yahweh, hast ordained them for judgment; 
Thou, O Rock, hast established them for correction. 
For they make men as fish of the sea, 
As worms that have no ruler. 
They take them all up with their hook, 
They catch them in their net, 
They gather them in with their drag-net. 
Therefore they rejoice and are glad, 
They sacrifice unto their net, 
And burn incense unto their drag-net. 
For through these their portion is fat, their meat plenteous. 
Shall they, therefore, empty their net, 
Nor cease to slay whole nations? 


Woe to that proud and treacherous one 
Who transgresseth by wine, nor stayeth at home, 
But maketh his desire as large as Sheol, 
And is as unsatisfied as Death! 
Who gathereth unto himself all nations, 
And heapeth unto himself all peoples. 
Shall not all these take up a proverb against him? 
And make against him a taunting song, and say: 


Woe to him that heapeth up what is not his, 
That loadeth himself with many pledges! 

Shall not thy creditors suddenly arise? 

Shall not they wake to vex thee, shall not they 

Make thee their prey? 
Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all they, 
The remaining peoples, shall make thee their prey. 
For thy shedding of blood, for violence done to the land, 

To the city and to all that dwell therein. 


Woe to him that covereth evil gains for his house, 

That he may set his nest on high, 

And be secured from the power of evil! 

Thou hast devised shame for thy house 

By cutting off many people. 
Thou hast forfeited thy life. 
For the stone shall ery out of the wall, 
And the beam of timber shall answer it. 


Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, 
And establisheth a city by iniquity! 
So that the people labor even in the fire 
And the nations weary themselves for naught! 
Woe to him that giveth his neighbor to drink 
From the cup of his wrath, till he be drunken, 
That he may gaze on his nakedness! 


ALA THE AUTHENTIC LITERATURE OF ISRAEL 


Thou shalt be filled with shame instead of glory; 
The cup of Yahweh’s right hand shall be turned unto thee. 

Drink thou also, and be uncovered! 
Filthiness shall be upon thy glory. 

For the violence done to Lebanon shall be on thee, 

And the destruction of beasts which made them afraid, 
For the shedding of man’s blood, 
For the violence done to the land, 

To the city and to all that dwell therein. 


Woe unto him that saith unto the wood: Awake! 
To the dumb stone: Arise! 
What profiteth it the graven image 
That the maker thereof hath graven it? 
Even the molten image, and the teacher of lies? 
Doth the maker of his work trust therein 
That maketh dumb idols? Can this teach? 


Behold, it is overlaid with gold and with silver 
And there is no breath in its midst; 
But Yahweh is in his holy temple. 
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.’ 


1 The superb ode that follows in (Ch. iii, A. V.), known as the ‘“‘Prayer of Habakkuk,” 
belongs to a different age and different circumstances. It will be found in Part II in 
the Appendix to the Psalms. 


TWO POEMS UPON THE MISSION OF ISRAEL 


THE SERVANT OF YAHWEH 
(Isaiah xlii, 1-4; xlix, 1-6) 


[Yahweh speaks | 


Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, 
In whom My soul delighteth. 
I have put My spirit upon him. 
He will set forth the Law to the Nations. 


He will not cry aloud nor roar as a lion, 
Nor will he raise his voice to be heard in the street. 
A bruised reed will he not break; 
A dim-burning wick will he not quench; 
Faithfully will he set forth the law. 
He will not burn dimly, nor be crushed in spirit 
Till he have established the Law in the earth 
And for his instruction the far countries wait. 


[The Servant speaks] 


Hearken, ye far countries to me, and listen, 
Ye distant peoples! 

Yahweh hath called me from the womb 

From my mother’s lap hath He honored my name. 

He made my mouth like a sharp sword, 

In the shadow of His hand He hid me; 
He made me a polished shaft, in His quiver He stored me. 
He said to me: Thou art My Servant in whom I will glorify Me. 
I was honored in the sight of Yahweh; my God became my strength. 


But I,—I said: I have labored in vain; 
For naught and vanity have I spent my strength. 
Yet surely, my cause is before Yahweh, 

And my recompense with my God. 


And now saith Yahweh, He who from the womb 
Formed me to be a servant to Him; 
To bring back Jacob to life, to assemble Israel together: 


IT IS TOO LIGHT A THING THAT THOU SHOUDST RAISE UP 
THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL, 

AND RESTORE THE PRESERVED OF ISRAEL; 

THEREFORE [ SET THEE TO BE A LIGHT TO THE NATIONS, 

THAT My DELIVERANCE MAY BE TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. 


_. The unknown author of these two poems sees in the experiences of his nation a 
Divine preparation for a world-wide spiritual leadership. He may or may not be the 
great prophet of the “New Covenant” (Jer. xxxi, 31-34) which proclaims the essence of 
religion for the individual; but the same lofty idealism informs his view of permanent 
international relations. He is inspired by the same joy of unexpected return to Zion; 
posiely by recognition of the thinness of the veil that separates his faith from that of 

is new beneficent masters. 

The other two poems usually grouped with these (Is. 1, 4-9 and lii, 13-liii, 12) show 
a very different background, and are now attributed to an author of the time of 

Artaxerxes III (B.c. 389-838), when the Jews were again subjected to very grievous 
persecution. 

415 





APPENDICES 






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APPENDIX A 


EARLY BELIEFS CONCERNING THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES 
I. THE CANON ACCORDING TO THE JEWS. 
a. According to JOSEPHUS in “Against Apion”, Century I., A.p. 


“We have not an innumerable multitude of books 
among us disagreeing from and contradicting one another, 
but only twenty-two books which contain records of all 
past times, which are justly believed to be divine. And 
of these five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and 
the traditions of mankind until his death. . . . But 
as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of 
Aryaxerxes, king of Persia, the prophets who were after 
Moses wrote down what was done in their times in thir- 
teen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to 
God and precepts for the conduct of human life.” (Bk. 1.8.) 


6. According to THE TALMUuD. Cent. V-IX. (Baba Bathra, xiv, b) 
MosEs wrote his own Book, the section on Balaam and Job. 
JOSHUA wrote his own Book, and eight verses of the law. 
SAMUEL wrote his own Book and Judges and Ruth. 
JEREMIAH wrote his own Book, the Book of Kings and 
Lamentations. 

HEZEKIAH and his College wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, Song 
of Songs and Koheleth (Ecclesiastes ). 

MEN OF THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE wrote Ezekiel, The Twelve 
(the Minor Prophets), Daniel and Esther. 

EzrA wrote his own Book and the Genealogies of Chron- 
icles, as far as himself”. 


II. THE MATERIAL THEN AT HAND FOR EXAMINATION OF THE TEXTS. 
a. The Samaritan Pentateuch (time of Nehemiah). Cent. V.3.c. 
The Septuagint Translation (LXX). Cent. III. and later. 
Targums (Aramaic paraphrases of O. T.) beginning Cent. IV. 
b. Oldest Hebrew Text, by R. Aqiba (recovered from texts used 
by the Masoretes). Cent. II. A.p. 
Literal Translation of Aqiba’s text, word for word into 
Greek, by Agila, Cent. II. (Used by Origen). 
Origen’s “Tetrapla” and “Hexapla”’. Cent. III. a.p. 
Jerome’s Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Latin, 
Cent. V. A.D. 
Targum of Onkelos. Cent. V. A.D. 
(N.B.—The opinion that Ezra closed the Canon (c. 440 B.c.) rests only on a conjecture 


offered in the XVIth cent. by Elias Levita, who wrote on ‘“‘The Origin and Nature of the 
Masorah”’ in 1588; edited by Ginsburgh, 1867.) 


419 


WE 


Ill. 


APPENDIX B 


STEPS TOWARD A FULLER UNDERSTANDING OF 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 


THE EARLIEST CRITICS. 


Philo of Alexandria. Origen of Alexandria and Palestine. 
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. Cent. IL-V. 
Jewish critics in Babylonia. Cent. VIII.-IX. 


FIRST CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON MODERN LINES. 


Abraham Ibn Ezra maintains “Isaiah” to be the work of two 
authors. Opinion received in France. Cent. XII. 
David Kimchi continues the work of scientific exegesis. 
Cent. XIII. 
Spinoza’s “Tractatus Theologico-Politicus” (1669), the first 
defense of liberty of thought and speech in regard to 
the Scriptures. 

Jean Astruc, a French physician, points out two separate 
sources for Genesis (1753). 

Robert Lowth, Professor of Poetry in Oxford, lectures on the 
“Laws of Hebrew Poetry” (1753), applying them to the 
analysis of “Isaiah”. 


ADVANCE IN SCIENCE, GIVING RISE TO DoUBTS OF ASSERTION IN 
THE SCRIPTURES. 
Birth of Modern Philosophy, and New Departures in Science. 
Cent. XVII. 
Birth of Geology and Comparative Anatomy. Cent. XVIII. 
Study of Comparative Grammar and Philology. Cent. XIX. 
Sciences of Archeology and Ethnology founded. Cent. XIX. 


420 


APPENDIX C 


DISCOVERIES IN THE NEAR EAST DURNG THE LAST CENTURY 


1798. 


LiM9. 


1845-1847. 


1846-1851. 


1842-1845. 


1850-1880. 


1881-1910. 


1887. 


1901. 


1907. 


NAPOLEON takes to Egypt forty savants who make an ex- 
haustive study of the ruins then visible. These he pub- 
lishes with full text and superb colored plates as a 
“Description of Egypt”, better known as “The Napoleon 
Books” (1809-1813). 

BoussArRpD discovers the “Rosetta Stone”; General Desaix 
finds another tri-lingual inscription in Upper Egypt. From 
these, CHAMPOLLION deciphers the clue to the ancient lan- 
guage of Egypt (1821-1826). 

LAYARD (Austen Henry) discovers the ruins of Nineveh on 
the Tigris, and the palaces of Sennacherib and other rulers 
of Assyria. 

RAWLINSON (Henry C.) discovers the tri-lingual inscription 
of Darius I. on the “Rock of Behistun” in Persia, and 
deciphers the one in wedge-shaped characters, thus recov- 
ering the lost language of Babylonia-Assyria. 

Lepsius (Kar] R.).explores all Upper Egypt, and publishes 
his finds in 1859. 

MARRIETTE (Augustus) makes many remarkable discoveries 
at Abydos; finds the rock-temple of Seti I. (Dyn. XIX.) 
and its “List of Kings” in Egypt from Mena down. ° 
MASPERO (Gaston) succeeds Marriette as Director of the 
Cairo Museum. Discovers the great cache of Royal Mum- 
mies at Deir el Bahri, where they had lain undisturbed 
since the time of Solomon. His many writings upon every- 
thing concerned with discoveries in Egypt are most 
valuable. 

Discovery of the “Tel el Amarna Letters” from the gover- 
nors of the Syrian provinces to their Overlord, AMEN- 
HOTEP III., imploring aid against the Khabiri or Arab raiders 
of their lands. Others contain the negotiations for the 
marriage of Amenhotep IV. (IKH-N-ATON) with a princess 
of the Mitanni. 

Discovery of the CopE oF LAWS OF KHAMMuURABI, king of 
Babylonia (2200 B.c.). 

Discovery of the tomb of QUEEN Try and the mummy of 
HER SON, IKH-N-ATON, THE ARTIST, POET AND RELIGIOUS RE- 
FORMER OF Dyn. XVIII. 


RESULTS OF THESE DISCOVERIES 


The making over of Ancient History, and the clearing up of many 
obscure points in the History of the Israelites and the Develop- 
ment of their Religion. 

Major authority upon the History of Egypt, SiR WILLIAM FLINDERs- 
PETRIE. 

Major authority upon that of Babylonia-Assyria, the late Morris 
JASTROW, JR., of the Univ. of Pennsylvania. 


424 


APPENDIX D 


EASILY ATTAINABLE WORKS OF LEADING AUTHORITIES 
IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM 


1837-1841. Ewaup, G. Heinricu A., “Prophets of the Old Testament” 
(trans. 1877). 


1845. i iN ne “History of Israel” (trans. 1867- 
1874). 

1860. KUENEN, ABRAHAM, “The Religion of Israel” (trans. 1875). 

4875. id “The Prophets and Prophecy of Israel” 


(trans. 1877). 

1869-1872. CoLENSO, J. W. (Bp. of Natal), “Treatises on the Penta- 
teuch”,. 

14881-1889. SmirH, W. Rospertson, “The Old Testament in the Jewish 
Church”; “The Prophets of Israel”; “On the Religion 
of the Semites”. 

1882. WELLHAUSEN, JULIUS, “Prolegomena to the History of 
Israel” (trans. 1885). 

1880-1886. Di~tuman, C. F. A., Studies of “Exodus”, “Leviticus”, “Num- 
bers”, “Deuteronomy”, “Joshua”. 

1887-1898. STADE, BERNHARD. Many valuable articles contributed to 
Biblical Encyclopedias and Reviews. Major works not 
yet translated. 

1888. DELITZSCH, FRANZ, “Commentaries”, “Daniel”. 

1891. Driver, SAMUEL’'R., “Introduction to the Literature of the 
Old Testament.” 

14898. CHEYNE, THOMAS K., “Jewish Religious Life After the 
Exile”. 

1899. Buppr, KARL, “Religion of Israel to the Exile”. 

1900. GUNKEL, HERRMAN, “Legends of Genesis” (trans. 1904). 


AMONG AMERICAN SCHOLARS 


1891-1894. Bacon, BENJAMIN W., “The Genesis of Genesis’; “The 
Triple Tradition of the Exodus”. 

1899. Briaccs, CHARLES A., “Introduction to the Study of the Holy 
Scriptures”. 

1898. HARPER, WILLIAM R. Articles on “Amos” and “Hosea” in 
the International Critical Commentary. 

1900. Moore, GrorGE F., “Critical Edition of ‘Judges’ ” 

4903. Harper, ROBERT. Monograph on the “Battle of Kadesh”, 
between Ramses II. and the Hittites (Kheta). Pub- 
lished in the Decennial Books of the Chicago Uni- 
versity. 

1904-1921. Kent, CHARLES F., Five Vols. of “The Student’s Bible” 
(not yet finished). 
1916. Barton, GreorGe A., “Archeology and the Bible”. 


Excellent articles upon almost every possible subject connected with the Bible may be 
found in the Encyce. Brit. More detailed scholarly ones in Hastings’ Dict. of the Bible 
and The Encyclopaedia Biblica, edited by Prof. Cheyne. For the Geology and Physiography 
of Bible-lands, see “The Face of the Earth,’’ vol. III, by E. Suess; “Researches in Sinai” 
(1906) by Prof. Flinders- Petrie; ‘Historical Geography of the Holy Land,’ by Geo. Adam 
Smith, D.D. Many younger men, especially in Canada and the United States, are now 
making notable contributions to the elucidation of important points to which these have 
shown the way, 

422 


















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